Yup, it’s that time of the year—the time when temps dip down into the negatives here in the Northeast. When I got up this morning, it was -1 degrees, but it felt like it was in the negative teens with the wind chill. The kind of morning when you step outdoors and the inside of your nose freezes instantly.
As I walked the 38 steps outside to work in the production kitchen, I noticed most of the houses in my neighborhood had little puffs of smoke coming out of their chimneys. When we moved to Vermont from NJ over 32 years ago, I thought this was the quaintest thing I ever saw. I felt like I was living in a Currier and Ives painting.
Where I grew up in NJ, the only smoke I ever saw billowing out of chimney pipes were from all of the refineries and plants nearby. I never remember seeing little puffs of smoke coming out of people’s chimneys.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings because I always did. When I used to walk to and from school or to a friend’s house, I would try to identify who was watching tv. I am guessing I could hear a high pitch sound of tv tuners. Then I tried to imagine what I thought they would be watching. This was long before cable tv, so all the programs were pretty clean-cut, all American tv shows except soap operas, perhaps.
My sense of smell would kick into gear whenever I was walking too. I could smell cigarette and pipe smoke coming out from people’s windows. Car fumes. Good smells coming from the bakery or Chinese take-out place. In the mornings, I smelled bacon some days. I could smell meats being grilled in the evenings, and I could always smell whenever some had a big pot of sauce on.
Most Italian families I know saved their pots of sauce for the weekends, but Wednesdays were Prince spaghetti days. I remember the commercial from when I was a kid. An Italian lady yelled out of the apartment window, “Anthony!” She said it like this, “An-the-nee!” Next, they showed Anthony running his cubby little ass off home for Prince spaghetti day. Good marketing when you can remember something 40 years later.
I also remember sounds. Kids playing ball in the street yelling, “Car!” Babies and younger kids crying or shrieking, and dogs barking. The thing that stopped me in my tracks and gave me a stomachache half a block from my house was my mother yelling. I hated when I heard her yelling at my father or the other child they adopted. I knew when I got home, I would get yelled at too.
It was so embarrassing knowing that if I could hear my mother yelling, the rest of the block could too. I knew other kids got yelled at; it didn’t matter because I still remember my cheeks getting red from embarrassment and the dread of the rest of the walk home.
Back to puffy little smoke clouds coming from chimneys. I don’t want this blog post to turn into a nasty memory piece; it’s supposed to be about looking for beauty we can find in our surroundings, whether you are in NJ, NY, Vermont, or anywhere else in the world.
I always make my family stop and look at beautiful sunrises or sunsets: rainbows, the moon, and the stars. I have them stop and listen to a particular bird or other sounds. I saw rabbit footprints in the snow this morning on my way to work. If it weren’t below zero, I would have walked to see where the bunny came from. Just looking up, you can see a whole different world around you and it can change your entire day. A world where everyone is on their fucking phones. Look up, dammit!
I feel fortunate to live in such a picturesque place. We chose to take the plunge and move here to live a simpler life, a place where we raised our boys in a more peaceful and safer environment. Marty and I chose to start our business, The Vermont Spätzle Company, here as well. This isn’t the place to make a lot of money, wear dressy clothes or shoes, or have convenient things around, that’s for sure.
I remember reading an article about when you start your day, it can be a good day or a bad day; it all depends on your attitude and what you see outside your little bubble. It’s for you to decide every single day. This is very hard to remember especially during these difficult times; noticing the small things in life helps to remind me of this, but not always. Some days I am bitchy, depressed, or miserable.
Good news! We are pretty close to completing the kitchen project! Yesterday, we did the tiling on the wall behind the stove, and it came out fantastic! Coming up with the pattern made my head hurt, but it looks good. Tomorrow, the tile can be grouted. I can’t wait to be able to cook normally again. Tonight, I am attempting French Onion Soup in Sam’s Instant pot, I am honestly not sure how it will turn out, but it smells good!