Ah, soy. I was quite ill as a pre-pubescent - allergies many and severe, leading to asthma.
One of the earliest allergies was to cow's milk. My parents switched me to goat milk, until I developed an allergy to that, too. At that point, best practice was to switch to a soy "milk", brand name "Soybee". It had a very distinctive and not entirely pleasant smell. I can still conjure it from memory, roughly 65 years later. On April 19, 2025 5:13:20 AM PDT, John Sundman via Silklist <[email protected]> wrote: >1) I grew up on a small farm in New Jersey in the 1950's and 60's — a part >of the country that has long since become anonymous suburbia. Our one cow, >whose name was Cow Beauty, had a nice little shed adjacent to the pasture, >and in that shed was a hay loft. Now of course the interior of that shed >had a very particular smell -- hay, wood, cow, cow shit, etc. But, one day >Cow Beauty gave birth to a calf. (How our one cow became with child, so to >speak, was not a question that occupied seven-year-old me.) And when that >calf was weaned, we nursed it with formula in a bottle, just like one you >would use to nurse a baby baby. And that formula, which was a mixture of >water and powder that came in a burlap sack, had a particular smell. So one >of my lost 'madeleine' smells is just that: the interior of Cow Beauty's >barn during the time that the nursing calf was still there: some >combination of the odors of cows, hay, wood, burlap, cow shit, and baby cow >formula. > >Many years after the farm was no more, I found myself living in a small >village in Senegal. There were no cattle there anymore, but there were >sheep and goats. And there was also, courtesy of the UN's UNICEF program, >corn-soya-milk to help supplement the diet of infants in children. It came >in burlap sacks. The smell of these things combined was >tantalizingly close to the smell of that cowshed. But it wasn't the same. I >wonder if that smell exists anywhere on earth in 2025. > >2. *The Smell of Other People's Houses,* a novel by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock >https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19370304-the-smell-of-other-people-s-houses > >I haven't read this novel, but I do know the author — or used to, anyway. >In 2006 - 7 I spent a lot of time in Colorado Springs, helping my brother & >sister in law through a difficult time. Bonnie-Sue was a college friend of >my sister in law; she used to help out as well. She & I used to play 1-on-1 >basketball. I was taller and an OK shooter, she was quicker and a much >better shooter. As a high school student Bonnie-Sue had been a star >athlete. She had some very funny stories to tell about playing against >Sarah Palin, who later became Governor of Alaska & the vice presidential >nominee on the Republican ticket headed by John McCain. But we're very far >afield from stories of memorable smells, so I'll stop here. > >jrs > > > > >On Fri, Apr 18, 2025 at 9:26 PM Udhay Shankar N via Silklist < >[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Fri, Apr 18, 2025 at 7:32 PM Thaths via Silklist < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >> Smells, more than taste (well, what is taste, but just a weaker way of >>> smelling?), play the role of bringing memories of madelines past for me. >>> >>> What are some scents from the past that you would pay good money to >>> experience again? >>> >>> https://www.ft.com/content/53a3a13b-fe98-4670-9163-be659ccbf4f2 >>> >> >> Here's a personal anecdote of this: >> >> In the early 80s, my father was gifted a bottle of Jules >> <https://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Dior/Jules-1243.html> cologne. In >> those pre-liberalization times, it was a rare thing that was used >> sparingly, and was forever associated in my mind with my father wearing it >> on big occasions like weddings or suchlike. That bottle lasted decades, to >> give you an idea. >> >> It was discontinued sometime after, never lost >> <https://www.yesterdaysperfume.com/yesterdays_perfume/2014/06/jules-by-christian-dior-1980.html> >> its fan following among perfume aficionados. Perhaps as a sop to this >> group, it was re-launched in the 2000s sometime, but only as a limited >> edition, available only at the flagship Dior store in Paris. Through a >> member of this list, I enlisted the help of a mutual friend who was >> traveling to Paris on work to pick up a bottle for me. Apparently, the very >> fact that he knew to ask for Jules gave him some cred with the sales people >> there. :) >> >> This bottle took an incredibly roundabout route to reach me, but reach me >> it did, eventually. The smell was objectively different from the original >> formulation, but close enough to give me that hit of instant nostalgia - >> which I indulge in from time to time. >> >> Udhay >> >> PS: I was sharing this story recently with another member of this list, >> also called Jules. :) >> -- >> Silklist mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist >>
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