We were talking the other night about old memories and how some can "trigger" other memories. My contribution was "wallpaper" cleaner. I still, after seventy years or so, remember that smell. I vividly remember going home from old Emerson School on a Spring afternoon, opening the big heavy front door at 319 South Brown Street, and being met with that aroma, Mom was Spring cleaning, and that always meant cleaning the wall paper, every year. We had a big coal furnace in the basement and I guess that meant dirt and soot on the walls. In those days every wall was wallpaper, no painted walls. And we had tall ceilings, it was quite a job. Not sure if Kutol was the brand she used, but the only one I could find quickly.
That aroma triggered so many things, Spring, Summer, no school, (in those days) a long, hot, endless Summer vacation, a trip to Michigan, getting the Jessiedean out, fishing, Burt Lake, so many good memories.
I don't know whether PlayDoh came from wallpaper cleaner, or vice versa, but it was almost the same product. And, you kept it in the can, with the lid on, or it dried out. As I recall I got to do some of the lower areas on the walls, probably did a lousy job, but they let me help.
