{"id":562,"date":"2020-05-21T15:25:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T20:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/?p=562"},"modified":"2020-05-21T15:25:40","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T20:25:40","slug":"a-whiff-of-nostalgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/?p=562","title":{"rendered":"A Whiff of Nostalgia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/694EB8E3-3F80-4B49-9F47-39F71820AC1A-1024x1012.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-563\" width=\"461\" height=\"455\" srcset=\"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/694EB8E3-3F80-4B49-9F47-39F71820AC1A-1024x1012.jpeg 1024w, http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/694EB8E3-3F80-4B49-9F47-39F71820AC1A-300x296.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/694EB8E3-3F80-4B49-9F47-39F71820AC1A-768x759.jpeg 768w, http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/694EB8E3-3F80-4B49-9F47-39F71820AC1A-1536x1517.jpeg 1536w, http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/694EB8E3-3F80-4B49-9F47-39F71820AC1A-2048x2023.jpeg 2048w, http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/694EB8E3-3F80-4B49-9F47-39F71820AC1A-1600x1581.jpeg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px\" \/><figcaption>Smells Like 40 Years Ago&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I stepped out back yesterday evening to check on our new plantings. They\u2019d all been watered earlier in the day, but I wanted to just take a look, and tell them goodnight. Yes, I talk to the plants. I sing to them too, when they get their morning watering. They seem to enjoy it, and it soothes the heck outta me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I looked at the tomato plant in its big pot, I decided to rotate it around on its plant caddy. Pleased with its happy, robust growth, I reached down to gently fluff the burst of new leaves. As I drew my hands back, I was swamped by an olfactory memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scent wafting through the air was just like the leaves from the tomato plants my Gogi used to grow in large pots in her back yard. Exactly. Precisely.&nbsp;<em>Whoa<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I raised my hands to my face and inhaled as deeply as I could. I felt my mind pop off and go roaming through time and space without the rest of me.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suddenly, I was a teenager again, helping Gogi pick tomatoes from the plants as she taught me which were \u201dready.\u201d I could feel that soft, soft, Southern evening air. I could hear the tree frogs starting their extraordinarily intense chorus. I knew we would soon go inside and set our treasures on the sideboard to ripen in the sun that beamed through the kitchen window during the day. I knew that we would have a glass of sweet tea and perhaps a chocolate chip cookie while sitting at the kitchen table and talking about everything and nothing at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I knew utter, bone-deep contentment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wasn\u2019t experienced enough to recognize the crystalline perfection of that moment way back when. Today, I am deeply grateful that my senses and my memory banks brought it back, ever so briefly, so I could fully appreciate the treasure of an early Summer evening with Gogi.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yes &#8230; I will be visiting the \u2018mater plant every evening now. How could I not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I stepped out back yesterday evening to check on our new plantings. They\u2019d all been watered earlier in the day,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/outsidevoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}