Sounds and Smells of Woodsdale

One of the best smells in the whole world was the air after a summer rain storm. It was rare in Woodsdale in the 50's to smell things like families barbequing in the backyard, but other smells were there....especially in the spring and fall. In spring you could smell the earth coming back to life and things blooming. In fall, you could smell mothers and grandmothers canning the smells of summer for a winter day...tomatoes, peaches, beans and more. A man on upper Poplar told me his favorite smell was mothers making applebutter another said it was the smell of the grass after mowing.

Our childhoods in Woodsdale were full of sounds as well. The synagogue cantor, Mr. Rubenstein practicing for Sabbath prayer. Bill Smoot doing an operatic aria. Children taking piano lessons. Mothers calling kids home for dinner. Dogs barking. Girls chanting as they jumped rope. Kids on pogo sticks going boing, boing, boing. The sound of skates on the sidewalk. Vincent the vegetable man's weighing pan swinging in his truck as he came up the street. I can't recall any loud "record players" or radios...best you could do was a transistor in your pocket while washing the family car. And as the steetlights came on, you would hear parents calling their kids home and kids, being kids saying..."just one more game Puleeeeese". In the summer, late at night you could sometimes hear the murmur of people talking on their porches.

Safe and sane....no sirens, shots ringing out, or people being raped or murdered...just the sounds and smells of normalcy. Tell me, what smells and sounds do you remember?