Memories and smells

The field next door is totally quiet today. The men have not come back. The only sign that they had been are a few extra posts in the ground and one of the stable doors is wide open. I know nothing more, but will keep you posted!!

Today I was thinking about smells and memories that drift through the mind when you smell a certain smell. It can catch you unawares, suddenly you get a vague scent of something in time gone by, it's hard to place but it jolts the brain and suddenly you are transported back to a time long ago and the memories come flooding back.

My nan has been dead for 30 years but her perfume lingers on, she used to use that cologne with the numbers 4711,(Thanks to Toady for remembering!),I just know the smell. My Nan suffered from most severe arthritis and diabetes and I only ever knew her as an old very disabled woman. She lived in a council bungalow in Worstead, that of the Woollen fame and more recently for the wonderful 3 day festivals every summer.

My mum, my sister and I used to visit my nan every Thursday, that was the only day the bus ran in that direction as it was market day in North Walsham. The bus went in the other direction on a Tuesday for the Stalham Sale each week.

My nan's home had such a wonderful array of smells that hit you as you entered the hallway, foody sort of smells wafted from the tiny kitchen, my uncle tried to boil a lobster one day and it climbed out of the pan and chased him and nan round the living room, in the end they couldn't cook it and gave it to a neighbour!

The bathroom smelt of bath salts and talcum powder, do you remember the old Bath crystals? They had such a distinctive smell and talcum powder smelling of rose petals. The bath salts were kept in an old Quality Street tin, with the woman and men dressed in Victorian clothes, you remember?

But my favourite smells were in nan's bedroom, her dressing table was full of little perfume bottles, that loose face powder that you use with the big brush and the darkest, reddest lip sticks, I used to love playing with those lip sticks, but they stained so much, my lips stayed red all day! Nan had a big double bed with a flowery, patch work quilt that she had made and a rag rug on the floor also made by her. At the side of her bed were her arm and leg splints, these had a strange plasticy smell and were very pink ,I was quite scared of them as they looked like real arms and legs just sitting there. Nan also had a jam jar with sugar lumps beside her bed, this was to help her with her diabetes, to stop her blacking out. I got very frightened when she blacked out but it was normal for her.

My sister and I used to love lunch times, nan would always make blancmange in separate dishes for us and she'd put a cherry on top. I never realised until I was older why her blancmange always tasted different to everyone elses, it was because she made it with sacccarine instead of sugar, because of her diabetes. I liked it like that and found the sugar way strange! We'd sit at nan's dining table, it was one of the big square tables that had pull out ends, she'd always have it covered with a dark chenille cloth.

Nan's garden was a jungle, no one ever cut the grass and there was a huge hill in the middle where someone had left a pile of soil and grass had grown over it. My sister & I loved playing "I'm the king of the castle" and pushing each other down the hill. We'd also search for Dodamens, that's snails for those who don't know Norfolk! My sister collected them and looked after them, we'd take them home on the bus in a box!

Another hilight of visiting nan was when the Corona man came, we never had him at our house, but he came to nan's road every Thursday so we'd take an empty bottle back and get our 3d and buy a new bottle for 9d. We both loved Red Cherry Corona best.

At 3pm we'd walk back up the street to catch the bus home, we loved visiting our nan,

However, when she came to live with us, things were not so good and life changed , but that is another story.