Herbal Essence

I did something the other day that I haven't done in 20 years or more.

I bought myself some Herbal Essence shampoo and conditioner.

To some, this may not mean a thing but when I was a young girl and a teenager that is what my daddy bought me to wash my hair.

It smelled of sweet roses, soap and bubbles and I felt like a Princess when I used it.

While using this shampoo/conditioner set my mind immediately raced back to thoughts of what my room looked like when I was a child and a teenager living with my single father of just myself.

I went from posters of smiley faces, animals and light, happy colors to boy bands and slightly darker color shades.

I remembered as well how warm and cozy my sheets always felt when I would climb into bed after my bath and how they always smelled of Gain or Tide laundry detergent.

The light shining in from my bedroom windows would shine down on my skin with such warmth it would fill my heart with happiness and I would watch it until it set.

All these things got me thinking about childhood and the senses that bring those times back to me.

My daddy's cologne was a semi-strong musty smell with a hint of spearmint and if I smelled it I knew he either had a date or it was time for church.

I remember well the sight of my daddy kneeling next to his bed in prayer. That is something I will never forget as he did it often.

The smell of cookies or brownies baking is another fond memory as I did both quite often with both my grandma and my daddy. You can taste this memory if you think about it long enough...the sweetness of the sugar, the chocolate taste from the cocoa or the chocolate chips and the flour and eggs that help pull it all together.

And who could forget summer days and me and my cousin Zach lying on our backs or sitting on the side seats in my daddy's pickup truck as he drove us around the backroads?

I remember what the hard seats and the bottom of the pickup truck felt like...one smooth but hardly any room for your rear end so you had to hold on tightly. The other bumpy and not at all a soft ride but we did not care one bit! The grass you could smell as well especially if freshly cut and I swear I can still feel the wind whipping my hair all around my face as if it were a whip and my face it's unsuspecting victim.

The smell of breakfast cooking every Saturday morning as I watched Saturday morning cartoons. The eggs and bacon blending as one and the biscuits rising. Our eggs were always scrambled and always cheesy with little brown bits in them. So they tasted creamy, milky and glorious with just a hint of some rough spots and the bacon my daddy liked one side pure fat while the other was cooked though. I recall that greasy taste as it slid down my throat like slime and the biscuits of course would soak all that up.

My grandma would tell me stories and I would hear of a girl named Ramona who would go to far away places and have adventures I only dreamed of having with all her forest friends. Then, we would go outside and look at the stars in the galaxy where my grandma would tell me I could have any adventure and be anything I wanted to be I just had to want it bad enough to reach out and touch it.

I was a true country girl who grew up running around on my granny and granddaddy's land and on my great granny Wood's land and I recall well feeling the rocks beneath my feet. Sharp and jagged but sometimes smooth grass would take its place. I climbed up on splintered wood to play in a barn that my Papa built with his own two hands. I jumped haystacks barefoot with prickly hay beneath my feet and felt I was flying all in the name of childhood.

I could hear the horses neighing, the wind blowing, my granny Wood's or my granddaddy plowing the land and turning up the freshly plowed dirt and my cousins laughter and in those moments all was right with the world.