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 By Kaycee Nilson Mar. 3, 2011 As one grows older, memories begin to play a pivotal part of your daily life. You don’t seek these moments out, they just happen at odd times and often out of the blue. You pass by a tree that maybe you’ve seen a thousand times in your life, but one time you flash on a memory of a happy picnic. Maybe a song comes on the radio and you remember the person in junior high that you had your first serious kiss with or your first slow dance. With me, it’s a particular smell. White Shoulders perfume. Every time I catch a whiff of it, I close my eyes and remember my Granny Kelly. She had the coolest bedroom in the entire world. The walls were painted this bright, and I mean BRIGHT bubblegum pink color. The furniture in the room was solid oak pieces that came from the family farm, and I suspect that some of the pieces, like her dresser, came to Texas in a covered wagon. I remember one time the carpet was the gold shag popular in the 1970’s and in Granny’s room, next to her bed was a circular hooked rug that had a rose with about 4 or 5 shades of pinks and reds. I also seem to remember an odd shade of avocado green carpeting in the house too at one point. But that hooked rug has stayed in my memory like the smell of her perfume. I would jump up and down on her bed while watching old King Kong movies in black and white. Pretty soon after the fifth time of being told to stop jumping, I would fling the closet door open and get a whiff of both White Shoulders and a faint mothball smell so her fur wouldn’t get eaten. Diving head first into a sea of chiffon and taffeta with sequins throwing bright sparkles across the entire closet and across the back of my hand, I would always seek out her stole. I can’t remember if it was mink or sable, but it was the softest thing I have ever laid my cheek against. I think I was 6 before I realized it wasn’t a cat. I can’t recall how many Sunday afternoons were spent in that bubble gum pink painted bedroom, playing with scarves and eating just about anything I wanted to while seated on her pillow. Sometimes I would have a Cab Calloway record blasting away while the sound on the television was at high volume. No matter how many times I heard Momma or Daddy in the hall, they never quite made it past the opening into the kitchen where Granny would be fixing chicken and dumplings. She also had this really old player piano that was HORRIBLY out of tune. But Granny would let me bang on it to my heart’s content. She would also let me dig in the sandbox in our back yard with her best silver-serving spoon. I doubt other kids my age got to say that they played in the dirt with a spoon that came from England. Anytime Mattel came out with a new Barbie, she would take me to the K-Mart near her house and buy me the doll along with a good $20 in clothes and accessories for Barbie, cause you can’t be in a Barbie world without the stilettos. I remember when I started getting into music and Granny would take me to that same K-Mart and buy me The Eagles and Journey. She would often time give me handfuls of change out of her purse and set me out into her neighborhood. I would walk about 2 blocks to the store on the corner and whine at them that instead of carrying Dr. Pepper, they carried Mr. Pibb. And NO they are NOT the same; they don’t even taste close to the same. It wasn’t all fun and games at her house though. She had this mean little toy poodle, Suzy. I swear that dog went out of her way to take chunks out of me whenever she could. I would have to make sure I knew were that dog was at all times. I really hated Sundays when it was time for us all to sit and eat. Suzy would first position herself in between Granddaddy and Momma and then I know she would wait until they weren’t paying attention to her she would crawl on her belly like soldiers in a army film over to me and then she would stand up on her hind legs and bite me on the knee! Every time that stupid dog bit me, I got yelled at for screaming and I still don’t know how on earth I was being mean to Suzy by screaming when the dog bit me.
So now that I have my own house and I’m able to plant stuff I want, I plan on putting a gardenia bush next to my window along with lavender, cause the two together resemble White Shoulders.
Her website containing her writings can be viewed at http://www.kayceenilson.com
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