I PURE LOVED THAT SMELL!

I PURE LOVED THAT SMELL!

BY GLORIA FAYE BROWN BATES/aka GRANNY GEE

Soapy suds, white bubbly bubbles!  The scent that comes from the suds are magic... they can transport me in time!  This always comes to my mind when I use Dial soap... truthfully, it's rare that I do.  I used Dial soap this morning in my wonderful shower!

When I use Dial soap it is to remember... I prefer my bars of perfumed soap.  Skip bought a package of Dial soap and gave me several bars... now, I can go back into time to remember these things whenever I want to.

The warm water from the shower ran over me as I stood there mesmerized by the bubbles, little ones... big ones.  Wonderful soapy bubbles that smell so.... so familiar.

Dial soap bubbles... I close my eyes, hold the bath cloth close to my face... my bath cloth is as sudsy as a bath cloth can possibly be.  As the water from the shower flows over me, I am taken instantly back into time while smelling the bath cloth.  I smile as I go back............

Little children who were innocent of their little naked bodies were running around, squealing with delight.  Some were in the old-fashioned porcelain bathtub that was filled with lots of warm, soapy water.  The bathroom was very spacious, everything was white, sparkling clean... I loved that bathroom.

The children bathing in the bathtub were all lathered up, smelling of wonderful Dial soap.  Bubbles were everywhere... it smelled wonderful.  I was on the outside looking in.... I was the extra child who lived in the house next door at Grandma Alma and George's.

I had come to play, only all the kids (there were six children) were bathing.  They were going to go somewhere!  Their mama and daddy were going to take them in the car ... take them to the drive-in movie.  There was no mama and daddy to take me anywhere.  Grandma Alma couldn't go anywhere, she couldn't walk.... George was blind.

I felt a sick feeling in my stomach... I wanted to go so badly.  I was afraid to ask... someone might 'get that expression' that meant they wished I hadn't asked.

Sometimes though, I'd get lucky... when everyone was in the car driving out of the driveway.... they'd happened to see me standing there watching them... a little girl whom everyone looked through... looked past most of the time.  I was a 'thrown-away' child... Grandma Alma and George's house was the 'catch-all' for the kids who weren't wanted.

'Come on, Faye, you can go'!  Sometimes, someone would call to me to come on, and I would feel instantly excited, happy.  I could go and play on the playground, watch the movie while outdoors at the same time!  I might could get a wonderful hotdog, french fries, and a wonderful cold, icy drink!

Looking back, I must have looked a pitiful sight... a little, unkempt girl no one wanted... who always was in the way.

I never got such at Grandma Alma and George's.  If they could have afforded it, they would have gotten that for me I'm sure.  Grandma Alma and George were poor... I was poor.

Looking back to 'then'... I smile inside thinking to how my heart would break seeing a little child on the outside of everything... how I would want to do things to make he/she happier.  Life is already very hard for a child like that.  I look back to 'then'... I can 'see now' that once in a while they .... felt sorry for me... once in a while.

I close my eyes, I see a big, airy bathroom full of laughing, squealing children running to get into the warm, sudsy water.  Each child was taking turns lathering the bar of Dial soap... the scent was 'everywhere'...  clean, happy, wonderful.  I could see that warm water full of ... beautiful bubbles.

I loved bubbles, I used to get bubble baths, get to play in the bathtub... but, not anymore... George and Grandma Alma's bathtub held only very cold water... I was too little to know how to make it warm.

Life was so different at Grandma Alma's, it was so hard.  This was a life I didn't know ... I was just thrusted into that life with no warning, no anything.  I had to learn survival skills...  learn them, I did.  I have the scars inside to prove it... no one can see them... I promise you they are there.  I feel them to this day... I never forgot.

Dial soap makes me think about 'happy as well as sad'.  Truthfully... I don't remember a happy time without ... a sad time to go along with it.  'Happy/sad'.... it seemed always that 'I had to pay for a happy time by something sad happening'.... Strange, but.... true.

It was like when I described to you all.... the time I wanted to go on a trip to see my mother.... I was told I had to wash the car in freezing cold weather by hand if I wanted to go.

I wanted to see my mama bad enough that while everyone sat inside in the warmth, I washed that car.  I was just a young girl, newly married, two hundred miles away from everything I knew.

As I think about the happy scent of Dial soap... I mentally 'push away' the 'sad'... so, that I can focus on just the 'happy'.

I loved that sound of my little cousins running, squealing with happiness, getting their baths in that big, airy bathroom.  Seeing them getting in and out of the porcelain tub to get their bath, to get a towel to dry off.

I loved that wonderful scent that wafted through the whole house from many bath cloths being soaped up to bathe many little children!  I take a deep breathe now, with my eyes closed.... I 'pure love that smell'!