Thursday, September 3, 2009

More Aroma Memories

One of my favorite aroma memories was Grandma’s house. She didn’t live near enough for us to run down and visit whenever we might like, but we probably made overnight visits two or three times a year. We entered the house from a closed in porch off the kitchen, that was used as a “summer kitchen” and dining area. It was always filled with the aroma of home-made bread and rolls. Absolutely wonderful! Grandma was a short, plump little woman, with long gray hair, twisted into a bun at the back of her head, who beamed at us when we arrived.

I don’t recall my mother ever making yeast bread. She made biscuits most of the time, and less frequently corn bread. She might have occasionally bought a loaf of bread from the bakery; but I remember also, seeing those pre-sliced loaves of bread, with the brightly colored dots on the wrapper, which we had with some of our meals. Ready-made bread at the bakers was a boon to busy, many-tasked housewives, which reminds me of another place of heavenly scent.

We lived kitty-cornered across town, about a mile from the grade school. About two or three blocks before we reached home, we passed Buehl’s Bakery. I can’t even begin to describe the wonderful scents that teased our senses as we walked by. Mornings were rushed; we could only breathe it in as we passed by. But, on the walk home, I couldn’t resist dawdling, looking through the window; and lucky me when I had a nickel, deciding on just which delicious tidbit I might try. Buehls is my very best scent memory. We lived at that particular place about three years before we moved to the country. The bakery was one of the things I really missed.

2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Although, bread baking was not a tradition passed down to me; many other types of cooking were. However, my favorite memory of "baked goods" doesn't come from the aroma. (Although I do love the smell of fresh baked bread! Hmmm) No, my memory of baked goods comes from a bakery truck that drove through our neighborhood in a north county suburb of St. Louis during the 1950's. This truck was much like an ice cream truck except it carried baked goods. I remember getting some of the best brownies ever from that truck. I hadn't thought about that bakery truck in a very long time. Thanks for prodding my memory.

    ReplyDelete

"Be ca'am, be as ca'am as you can. And, if you can't be ca'am, be as ca'am as you can." Reputedly, advice from an old New Englander on staying cool, calm and collected.