”A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one smell.” 

Today will be mostly cloudy, but it is sunny right now. It will be warm again. The great weather continues.

Yesterday the great mystery of the sock was solved. Last week I found a single sock on my deck from a favorite pair of socks. I know socks don’t walk though my mother used to warn us that our socks were so dirty they could walk themselves to the washer. The sock I found was wet so I put it on the rail to dry. I went upstairs through my basket of socks but couldn’t find the mate of the deck sock. In a while, the sock disappeared from the rail, but I saw it in the yard. Nala was the sock thief. That much I knew. I left the mateless sock in the yard. Yesterday I picked up my laundry. In the bag, at the top of the clean laundry pile was the sock, the missing mate. Now the other sock was missing, still in the yard I figured. I went hunting and found it. The socks have been reunited.

When I was a kid, my world was small. The most exciting places were the stores uptown and, my favorite place, just down from the square, the library. Those were the days of speaking in whispers and librarians shushing us. The librarian was old. She wore the same type dresses my grandmother did. She really did have a bun. She also spoke in whispers. At the desk, I’d hand her my books. She’d take out the card from the back of the book, stamp it with the due date and then put it back into the book. She always carefully stamped the card within the lines.

Uptown had smells and aromas. The best was the aroma which filled the square when the bread was baking at Hank’s Bakery. I remember Hanks so well. Inside were glass cases filled with brownies, cakes and cupcakes. On the wall behind the counter were the breads and rolls. I remember the white boxes and the giant roll of twine. The lady behind the counter filled the box and quickly wound it with twine. Her fingers moved so fast the box was wound with string in a heartbeat.

A distinct smell came from the fish market at the end of the square. I remember the lobsters swimming. I also remember the fish on ice. Some still had heads. I remember the fly strips hanging from the ceiling. They were sticky so they were covered with dead flies who had made bad decisions.

I am disappointed by today’s grey sky. Tonight is the harvest moon. It will be full after ten, and then there will be a partial eclipse. I’ll see clouds.

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2 Comments on “”A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one smell.” ”

  1. Bob's avatar Bob Says:

    Hi Kat,

    We are still sunny with highs in the mid 90s. This summer I have been addicted to watching my world champion Texas Rangers not even make it to the playoffs. The same team that won 11 straight games on the road during the playoffs can’t even make it into the postseason.

    When I moved to NYC my world became very large. I was fortunate enough, at age 13, to be able to travel all over the city on one fifteen cent subway token.

    A couple of weeks ago I was able to reconnect with a friend from high school. I had been looking for him on the internet and couldn’t find him. It turned out that he had moved back to his birthplace, The Netherlands to avoid the Vietnam era draft. He was one year behind me in school.

    I guess I will have to renew my passport and buy a ticket to Amsterdam.

  2. katry's avatar katry Says:

    Hi Bob,
    My poor Sox had a few bright spots, but they folded, no post season for them. Next summer I’ll still follow them, and my hopes will probably be dashed again.

    I used to ride the bus to the Sullivan Square, the closest subway station. I loved to roam in Boston.

    When I was coming home around 8 from my uke practice, the fog was quite thick. It sort of just hung there.

    Wow, persistence paid off with your finding your friend. I think a trip to visit him is a great idea!


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