Every time I smell peanuts parching reminds me of the times when Jerome Pizzo used to parch peanuts that people used to buy for 5 cents a full bag to go to the movies.
The smell of dry goods reminds me when my mother used to take me to Morgan City to Henry Loeb’s Store. That store really had that dry goods smell.
When I smell hamburgers fried with onions, it reminds me of the street fair hamburgers. Some people use to say that they saw roaches fried running across the grill. It still tasted good.
When I got sick as a boy, my mother used to give me cocoa quinine. The stuff had a good taste. One day when my mother was not at home, I went into the medicine chest and drank a whole bottle of cocoa quinine. Next day, I was “loose as a goose.”
Every time I see someone scooping ice cream reminds me of the time when Rose Pattie used to scoop ice cream at 5 cents a cone — the brand was tuttie-fruitti.
Every time I smell bread cooking, it reminds me when I was a small boy and my mother used to bake bread in a forna in the backyard. A forna is a brick oven covered with mud which holds the heat.
Honeysuckle is the smell of Spring-time. The Berwick Walking Trail has honeysuckles from one end to the the other — that smell is so fragrant in the Spring.
How many of you remember the crabmeat sandwiches that Footes at the ferry landing in Berwick used to make for 15 cents? Every time I see a crabmeat sandwich, it brings back those old memories.
Remember when Linden Bonner of Morgan City and John Burke of Berwick used to peddle hot tamales all over town at 15 cents a dozen? It would take a miracle to bring back those prices.
Every time I smell dry mackerel it reminds me of the Central Grocery located in the French Quarters in New Orleans.
Every time I smell sweet basil it reminds me of my daddy because he used to keep some in his top pocket. He always smelled like sweet basil. He told me in 1935 he went to Sicily and sold some of his property. He came back home with $5,000 in his top coat pocket stuffed with sweet basil — and he went flying through customs.
Every time I smell candles burning it reminds me of Christmastime. We always burned two candles on the mantel piece over the fireplace. We used to roast wieners and marshmallows on a long fork. In the ashes, we used to roast chestnuts. I had my two dogs then — Badonni and Gileeda — laying down by the fireplace with me. Those were happy times!
Every time I smell gardenias, it reminds me of the smell of flowers in the cemetery.
* The End *