Recalling childhood’s tastes and smells

0
64
calf with bottle

If you’ve never experienced the strong association between taste and smell, I have just the thing to prove it to you. This experience will only surely connect, though, if you’ve ever been a farm kid who had to feed calves.

Recently, I decided to try what was promoted as a healthy drink to boost protein intake, giving a person more energy to burn through that never-ending chore list in a hurry.

After stirring up this powdered drink with enthusiasm, I took a big sip. I feel certain that my eyes rolled around in my head like a cartoon character, while my feet turned into rotors, propelling me to the sink to wash it away with gloriously tasteless water.

The drink tasted exactly like the milk replacer I stirred up for the calves when I was a kid. Calf Lac, the cream-colored powder that came in a big bag, had a very distinctive aroma, and I guarantee you, this drink tasted just like Calf Lac smelled.

No, thank you.

I remember that each Calf Lac bag came with a colored rubbery plastic cup to use for measuring. When each bag was emptied, we took the cup to the house. Those became our Kool-Aid sipping cups, and we had them in various colors, a bonus for a houseful of kids.

There were times, I promise you, I could still smell that distinctive aroma of Calf Lac while sipping from one of those cups. The drink menu for us when I was a kid was either milk, water or the brightly colored, highly-sugared, fake fruit juice that every kid lived on throughout the 1960s and 70s.

And so, I remember feeling mighty inventive when I opted to use an empty glass pop bottle, slowly pouring my Kool-Aid into it. Magically, it tasted unbelievably great. Though my sisters tried to talk sense into me, I suddenly saw myself as a cool kid, and that the entire world would soon be following my lead. No more Calf Lac cups for me!

Because Kool-Aid was so cheap it was practically free, no one squashed my spirited drinking. As long as I didn’t make a mess, I could stir up another pitcher of the stuff.

I can put myself right back in that kitchen, pulling open the small drawer and flipping through those little card-sized packets. Red Kool-Aid was the best. Whether it was strawberry, cherry or black cherry it didn’t matter, they all tasted red.

What I hadn’t bargained for is that my stomach was used to one Calf Lac cup-sized serving. I drank from that pop bottle like a drunken sailor suddenly stuck in a dry, hot desert.

That red Kool-Aid demanded a sudden repeat performance, without the bottle, right off the side porch railing. No one felt a bit sorry for me.

I’m old now, and a little wiser. I’ve sworn off Kool-Aid and any old thing that smells even remotely like Calf Lac for all time. Who’s with me?

Get our Top Stories in Your Inbox

Next step: Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.
SHARE
Previous articleMy escape into nature
Next articleThere's one chance to nail corn silage harvest
Judith Sutherland, born and raised on an Ohio family dairy farm, now lives on a 70-acre farm not far from the area where her father’s family settled in the 1850s. Appreciating the tranquility of rural life, Sutherland enjoys sharing a view of her world through writing. Other interests include teaching, reading, training dogs and raising puppies. She and her husband have two children, a son and a daughter, and three grandchildren.

NO COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY

We are glad you have chosen to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated according to our comment policy.

Receive emails as this discussion progresses.