Smells of a distant past

Every now and then, I get some very vivid dreams about growing up in my birth country (not Canada). A little over a decade ago, I went back to that country but this time as an adult. It's interesting what you observe as a grown-up that you miss being immersed in that culture as a child. One of my personal favourites is when we went out grocery shopping. As mundane as that chore may be, I've always loved it even when I was a wee child.

You see, the grocers in their country aren't the tidy little supermarkets that we find in North America. No, these are mom and pop shops scattered all over the neighbourhoods. As you entered the store, you will find yourself confronted by a bewildering montage of ordinary household items, stacked away in ordered chaos into every nook and cranny that merchandise can be crammed into. About the only way you can ever find anything in this glorious mess is to either know where it is because you've found it once before to ask the proprietor (or more commonly, his wife) where things are. Going to the grocers has a full spectrum experience where your senses are bombarded not just by clashing colours but by remarkable scents. Even now when I close my eyes, I can smell the very odd mixture of spices and detergent, of dried fish and deodorant, smells that float above the background smell of years of mixed storage.

When I do groceries here, it's often an in and out affair. We don't really chat with anyone any more, we just go in and get our things then head out as quickly as we can because that's our culture nowadays. We just don't take time to chat with the proprietor any more, to catch up on the goings-on in our neighbourhood. For most supermarkets, there's simply no such person as a proprietor any more as they are all chainstores with managers and employees instead of an owner, his wife and children. I don't know about you but I think that's a little sad. Oh, don't get me wrong-I'm fully cognisant of the economic realities these days that brought about such changes. As a working parent I'm subject to the same monetary pressures as everyone else. But still, I think that we as a culture have died a little when we lost these mom and pop shops. You see, what we call customer service these days was simply good manners and sociability back then. These days, we have to teach people how to be polite and nice to customers.

Yes, I think that we have truly lost a part of our souls when we stopped being nice to each other because we should instead of being told to do so.