Prompt - What sense trigger memories or emotions for you?

I am not sure exactly why, but every time I smell a dryer vent, while the dryer is running, I think of my Grandma and Grandpa Read.  I think because their dryer vent was on the back of their house near where we played as kids.  Or maybe it was that you walked right by the laundry room as you entered their house.  Either way I love to smell a dryer vent because brings me back to those moments.

 

My Grandma and Grandpa Read lived on a farm.  Not really, but as a kid that’s what I believed.  They had about an acre of land that my Grandfather used as a garden.  I believe the garden, which was surrounded by a mixture of wooden and barbed wire fencing, once had horses but that was long before I was alive.

 

Their house was out in the country.  Only about a half-hour from our house in the suburbs it was in the unincorporated part of our county.

 

My Grandpa always had Ice Cream.  There were very few times that he did not have it, which I have tried valiantly to thrust from my memories.  As one of the older kids, it was my goal each time we visited to coerce one of my younger siblings to ask for ice cream. No one was going to look down on my younger brother or sister if they asked.  But the older I became I often received looks and lectures telling me to not be selfish and to watch my manners.

 

My grandma’s kitchen was the center of activity in the house.  The antique cabinets and updated linoleum floors seemed to have age and wisdom to them.  Having witnessed countless family dinners, personal discussions, and games of cards.

 

While the children entertained themselves in the front room the pinochle, cards came out.  Our play was soundtracked by gameplay.  Talk of bids, trumps, and scoring seemed interesting until someone decided to teach me the game.  I wish I never learned I might still be intrigued today.