Saturday morning, July 13, 2013, another lottery bonanza unless superstition rears its head, 13 will be a hot number tonight. Sitting out here on the porch, gorgeous weather, a nice cool breeze comes and goes, the sun is bright, the sky a soft blue with those white puffy clouds here and there. I remember many years ago, in Klamath Falls, Oregon, I decided to go to school, at OTI, Oregon Technical Institute, I decided to become a phlebotomist and enrolled.
I had an English class, creative writing, always remembered what she said, "Don't just look and see clouds in the sky, see, white, puffy clouds like cotton, etc., etc." so I have always tried to be more specific and colorful when describing something. Oh, the phlebotomist thing, a week or so into classes, my lab partner, who was a young girl considerably younger than I, came at me with a needle or a syringe or something, and I decided that was not for me. I left that day, headed back to Reno.
Why was I in Oregon, you ask. Well, my wife at that time, was from there. A long, long story, anyway we moved up there for a while ......
I digress, quite a bit to be exact. Oh, Count Bassie's music is coming out through the window. I recommend to everyone, take a time from you life that life was good, and listen to music from that era. Don Cornell now singing, and I am sitting in the living room at 319 South Brown Street, I am 10 years old, life is good. Do it often enough and you are immediately taken back to that time.
Music can do that to me, and odors can too. I still remember wall paper cleaner and that aroma. It meant Spring, Mom and Sadie were clean the walls, after a Winter of coal smoke. I would come home from school at old Emerson Junior High School, open the door, and out came that telltale aroma, wallpaper cleaner, Spring, soon Summer and school was out. Aqua Velva shaving lotion, Lake Tahoe, working at the Nevada Lodge, Old Spice, the late 40's and early 50's, it was the "in" thing to splash on and I think I started shaving at that time. Spanish Leather, used that in the late 50's, a German dealer at Harold's Club would fly home to Germany and bring that back for me. 60's, English Leather was the thing.
I can get a whiff of certains fragrances and be transported, certain music is the same way. Ray Charles takes me back to Elko, Nevada and even Las Vegas, and Mount Charleston, where they forest fires are now. One that is no more, "Of Thee I Sing, Charbert," which my brother used, and my first "scent" is not available any more, not even a picture of the flask type bottle it came in. One mention on EBay, no photographs.
Saturday Morning. Alice Tuttle turned to and cleaned her apartment on Saturday Morning. She was a 21 dealer at Harolds Club, but Saturday morning was all cleaning. She had an ElectroLux vacuum cleaner that was in a footstool, never forgot that. We used to stop by her place and just watch her.
Big night tonight for the wife, class reunion at our local country club. She had a big class so there should be some there. I bought a new shirt, pink with white collar and cuffs, black coat, gray trousers. Have to brush the dust off of them, last work to a funeral, a few years ago, we don't get out much. I was feeling pretty good about my looks until I used my wife's "tablet" ..... with a camera ..... looked at myself, brown spots, everywhere on the sides of my face, no way to cover them up. I hear that apple cider vinegar applied on them will reduce them, but don't have the time. I don't know these people anyway. We were going to be there at 7:30 for the dinner and miss the "cocktail hour" at 6:30. We are going to arrive at 6, a couple of Gin and Tonics won't make the brown spots go away, but I will think of them less.
