Temps Perdu

[nmg]

Had a sudden realisation in the car on the way to pick the garklet this evening, as the warm spring sun streamed through the windscreen.

At that moment what I really wanted, more than anything else, was to be five years old again, and to be taken out to a pub by my parents on a warm spring weekday evening. I wanted to have a Pepsi (in a small bottle, scratched with reuse, with two narrow non-bendy straws, one red-and-white, and one blue-and-white) and a bag of KP nuts (not Planters) or possibly a bag of KP crisps (with the frying friars on the bag). I wanted the smell of warm stale beer on a rusty tin bar tray, and to be able to run around the box hedges in the beer garden at the back of the Tower Arms (now sadly lost to a ghastly conservatory).

Sigh. I think that we need to take the garklet out to the White Swan at the weekend, if the weather is still good.

In other news, back from hols in Malta - more in another post.

Comments

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

The old fashioned "pub smell" wafting out of the door on a summer afternoon is one of the major Proustian sense memories from my childhood.

It seemed so exotic and adult and intriguing, especially as you would look through the door and it was so dark and cool, sometimes with with thick carpets, velvet upholstery and fringed lampshades. If it was a posh pub, at lunchtime the tables would have wineglasses with red napkins in, ready to be replaced by prawn cocktails.

Every now and then I'll walk past a pub and there will be a hint of that particular smell, and I can't possibly go in because I'm 7 years old...

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Lemonade in a schooner in the beer garden at the side of the Rising Sun, watching bees trundle around the miniature roses. Scampi fries or cashew nuts. But yes.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Craving for scampi fries now. Can you still get them?

[jorune.livejournal.com]

Yes, Bacon fries also. Though steer clear of the cheese moments. Not so good.

[perdita-fysh.livejournal.com]

My parents didn't really go to pubs unless we were away on holiday. I feel deprived now!

There is a smell of hot pavements that will get me every time though *&)

[nmg.livejournal.com]

It was incredibly rare for me - it relied on my dad getting home from work early (which meant someone else closing up the bank branch that evening) - and probably only happened a handful of times that I can recall.