I'm Glad We Still Do This!

Over the past few weeks I've gone back to a strict 5 mile a day walking routine. I'm eating better, losing some weight and that's good. I've been getting up early even on weekends. And when you're out early, you notice things that would normally escape you just by staying at home.

I feel I have an acute sense of smell. Aromas are really powerful to me and can really transport me back to a place and time, almost like I'm there again watching the whole thing. It's a double edged sword though. Picking up the beautiful, wispy scent of a really elegant perfume... amazing. Catching a whiff of a dead skunk on the road... not so good! But today was neither extreme, it was solidly somewhere in between. I was walking at 5:30 this morning, and I came across the familiar warm smell of a pancake and sausage fundraising breakfast that was going to begin at 7am. That's what the sign said, and man did that take me back!

I'm glad to see that these still exist. Powerful memories of my dad taking me to work these events with him years ago. My dad was a Kiwanian in my hometown of Berea for many years. He would get me up early and take me with him when he worked these. I remember thinking I was such a big-guy, hanging with the other dads, and most times I was the only kid there but I didn't mind. I was about 8 or so. And the smell of hot sausage and fresh pancakes on a cold winter morning never fail to take me right back to Fredrick Roehm Junior High School where the event was held annually.

We'd get there about 5 am, and start in. The whole deal was to raise money for the Kiwanis Little League that I would one day play in, all being prepared in a school I would one day attend and play sports in as well. I'd mix the batter, or flip the links, man can I remember that! I'd wear an apron that wrapped around me twice and hung to the floor once. The other dads would cheer me on, or laugh not at me... but with me. One year we went in later in the day, and we had a TV in the kitchen and watched the Browns/Bengals game while we worked. Now that was a big day. It was there that I learned that "fun" really is fundamental. Even though we were working, it was fun. I try to carry that lesson with me to work every day, and share it with my partners on the show, and co-workers.

I guess what I'm saying is, that I'm so glad to see that we still do things like this in the busy, stressed out world that we live in. That smell took me back big time. I'm not going to say to a simpler, easier time because I'm not sure that it was. I was just a kid. But simpler or not, one thing I'm sure of... it was important. Didn't seem so at the time, it was just fun. But here we are all these years later, and I can still see my smiling self in a kitchen of stainless steel, with the warmth of the grill surrounding me and the smell not just of great food being prepared by really nice community minded men to raise money for a good cause. It was the smell of what childhood should be, safety, stability, and security.

This morning that aroma took me back to a good time, a very good time. One so good, I can almost taste it.