June 30, 2024

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

Grandmothers leave a scent that even when you are, say 80, you recall it as if you were still 5. It is a ticket to nostalgia, yes, but more to a time, a place, a person.

My own Nana (I had just one grandmother, my mother’s mom having passed when she was just 8), was a no-nonsense, industrious woman, a housewife and sometime blue-collar worker, who was most kind to her five grandchildren from two sons. She always made sure they had treats when we came by.

The ingredients for these were kept in an ivory-colored metal cabinet at the top of the cellar stairs. Opening it produced a volume of scents from baking supplies – brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, etc. If you retrieved something for your grandma, you knew baking time had come, and soon enough you would enjoy proceeds of the effort.

Spice and cookware cabinets are a thing with grandmas, and once you get an early whiff of the combined scents, you don’t forget the time, the place, and, of course, grandmother.

The writer is a retired newspaperman penning essays since 1981.

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