A Smell. A Memory.

My child was up WAAAYYYY too EARLY this morning. I decided since I was up, I would be productive and go for a walk to get some exercise. (Once you become a mother, you have very little time for yourself. But... You still have to worry about the size of your butt. So... You do things like buy a fancy jogging stroller so you can push your child through the neighborhood at a high rate of speed so you can get some exercise and hopefully some peace & quiet.)

It was melt your face off/sweat your a$$ off hot, even before 8am. Past the halfway point of our walk, there was the smell of grass from one of the yards.

It's not just any grass, it's old school grass. You know, the kind of grass that people planted before we had those hybrid grasses that are "drought tolerant". The heat caused the grass (maybe Zoysia) to smell luscious and green. It's a very woodsy, clean smell. Anyway, the smell of that yard, with that grass reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of summers spent in rural Virginia.

Both sets of grandparents lived in the same tiny town. My brother and I would go from our maternal grandparents house to our paternal grandparents house (and back again). It was only a short walk through the back yard, the neighbors yard, and down the street. I would smell THAT GRASS when we would walk from one house to the other. Those were the days when it was safe to let young kids walk down the street by themselves. You know, back when my brother wore tube socks pulled up to his knees and I had pigtails.

It's funny how a smell or a sound can trigger a memory. The smell of the grass has left me longing for simpler days. I miss the times when I could let other people do the worrying. I miss the days before bills, non-sleeping toddlers, car repairs, career decisions, insane gas prices, out of control unemployment, and...

I would like to take a vacation and go back to that time and place. I would like to have one worry free afternoon bouncing between my grandparents houses during the hot Virginia summer.