I smelled some bread the other day...

...and it made me a little nostalgic.

Disclaimer: This is a really mushy post without much riveting content.

Growing up, we used to drive down this certain street that was home to a bakery. We would always roll down our windows (anyone else miss those hand cranked windows of the late 80's? Yeah, me neither. Though they would have come in handy the time I was in college and the fuse or whatever that controlled my electric windows went out one day in July on the freeway and I also had no air conditioning so I had to get off at each exit ramp and fan myself with the door. This was the same car whose windshield wipers went out in a rainstorm so I drove with my head sticking out the window. Mom and Dad, I may have given you heart attacks every time I drove anywhere but on the bright side at least I found all the holes in the driver's ed course so you were better prepared to teach my younger siblings a few years later and include random worst case scenarios.)

Wow. Anyway, back on topic: We would always roll down our windows and smell the bread and beg my mom to stop at the outlet store. If you were under 10 you got a free treat and I always chose a snowball but ironically I never ate the chocolate cake.

I was thinking the other day how much bread is a part of my childhood memories. I remember summer nights eating ice cream cones and cookouts eating hamburgers sandwiched in buns. I remember my mom baking every single one of my birthday cakes. I remember baking muffins as part of my homeschool curriculum and selling them at my dad's work for some ridiculous amount that didn't even cover the cost of ingredients. I remember winning second prize in the state fair for my chocolate chip cookies.

When my kids look back, I wonder what they will remember. Their memories won't be of whole wheat blueberry muffins and snowballs and I sure hope they won't be of my rubbery pancakes and crumbly cookies. The food of their memories will be different but I hope it will bring back nostalgic feelings of love and security and family.