Another experience that my wife and I had was on a trip to Medjugorje in Yugoslavia. We stayed with a Yugoslavian family who lived in the surrounding area of Medjugorje, which was under Communist rule.
These people were very friendly, but were also very cautious of what they would say or do. After being there a couple of days, the lady who we were living with told us she could speak Italian — and boy, after that I had it made! She would bring hot bread and all kinds of goodies to our rooms.
When we went to church in Medjugorje, there were two Communist planes that would fly as close as possible over the church to scare off some of the people. Those planes made so much noise that you could not hear what was going on in church. Later on we heard that one of these planes had crashed.
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Every time I smell Ben Gay ointment, it reminds me of my great-grandmother. She used it by the gallons.
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Every time I smell magnolia flowers, it reminds me of Rose Hada’s large magnolia tree. She wouldn’t give us any of the flowers so we use to wait until she went to the post office, then we would go and pick the magnolia flowers.
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Every time I smell cigar smoke, it reminds me of the shell crusher in Morgan City, where I spent 10 years. Mr. Goff, the superintendent, use to smoke La Optima cigars — we could always tell when he was around by the smell of the cigar smoke.
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Every time I eat red beans it reminds me of the time when I use to run around with Van Adams. His daddy operated the pump house for the railroad. There were always about 10 camp cars with railroad workers parked there in the vicinity of the pump house. They would invite us every day to eat dinner. Red beans was the specialty every day.
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Remember when people use to put their clothes up with moth balls? Everywhere I would go, people would say: “Nina, you smell like moth balls.” Well, either I had to use moth balls or wear clothes with moth holes.
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Every time I smell leaves burning it reminds me of the fall of the year. Long time ago before television and air conditioning, Mother and Father use to sit out on the porch at night. I used to burn leaves in a bucket to make smoke to get rid of the mosquitoes. Also, if a trapper was to wake up at midnight and smell the smoke from a burning marsh, he would pack a bag of traps on his back and take off for the marsh. The smell of that smoke would invigorate him. Remember how Popeye would perk up when he ate spinach?
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Do you ever see something that brings back memories of yesteryears? Every time I smell popcorn, it brings back fond memories of my 40 years’ experience in the movie theatre business.
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