Rebeccas Blog

Smells like home

Posted at October 16, 2008 15:49

Have you ever stood outside, closed your eyes, and smelled the air? What did it smell like? Today, it smells like fall in Missouri. The sun is shining, and the leaves on the trees are turning glorious hues of yellow, red, and orange.

I have lived in a few places that had distinct smells. About sixteen years ago, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, smelled like Cap’n Crunch cereal. Still does, assuming that the Quaker Oats plant is still cranking out Crunch. One town, that shall remain nameless, but not in Iowa, had a plant that processed agricultural products, for what purpose I do not recall. I’m trying to be gentle, but it didn’t smell so good. Those are the two extremes.

Four years ago now, when my family moved home to Missouri, as I walked to the mailbox one day, something struck me as familiar. It was the smell … smelled like home … autumn in Missouri. It was smoke from a distant fireplace, the decaying colorful leaves on the ground, and someone was cooking something wonderful. I must admit, though, that each season in Missouri has an aroma of its own, but there is something about this time of year.

Perhaps, my affection for the changing of trees began when I was a kid. My parents and I made annual pilgrimages to the Flaming Fall Revue on the Glade Top Trail, which is this weekend by the way in southwest Missouri. Each year, there is a barbecue and entertainment. If it’s a good year, though, the real show is the view. If it’s a good year, the trees are blazing, and you can see for miles southward through the Ozark Mountains into Arkansas.

It’s something not to be missed, autumn in Missouri. But you have to be watching because it seems to come and go in an instant, that peak of color … that moment of home.

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