aromachology in action

I live near a steel mill.  For years, I had no idea one was located in town, because I’d never lived in the neighborhood near it.

It was the smell that I noticed, after some years.  And that’s another topic entirely, but the neighborhood associations are in a lawsuit w/ the mill because of the fumes, anyway…

The smell this morning, that was hanging heavy in the air like a storm cloud, was of floor wax!  And it was floor wax I’ve not smelled since I was 14, and walking through the lobby of the Berkeley Community Theater.  Here I am walking down the street and bam, it’s 1986.  I think it was the last day of summer, and all the new students were being herded into the lobby to prepare for the nightmare that was called ’self-scheduling’, back then.

I even remembered the smell of the mimeographed handouts the class counselors gave us.  I guess that makes it a two-fer?

(In the meantime, it looks like the neighbors have to keep a ‘nose out’ for hot floor wax odors, in addition to the burning pot-handle stink.  Gah…)