I'm back from my journey to the Hi-Line, where I spent Christmas with Gay, along with a stop last night in Great Falls to hang out with Beth. I'll respond to email and comments in the next day or two. In the meantime, I've decided to introduce a new feature here on the blog -- "postcards" from Montana and wherever else I happen to be. In text, photography or both, I'll try to capture a "snapshot" of something beautiful or unusual and share it with you.
Postcard from Great Falls, Montana
Today in Great Falls, and undoubtedly at every mall in America, Bath and Body Works was crammed with excited women sniffing out bargains at its big after-Christmas sale. Six dollar room diffusers, $5 body butters, three-for-$9 antibacterial hand cleansers, $10 candles -- in scents from sweet pea and moonlight path (my personal favorites) to coconut lime verbena, mango mandarin and cotton blossom -- all produced and packaged expressly to appeal to the hard-wired genetic female propensity for little, pretty, colorful, yummy-smelling things. A thousand years ago we dug roots and picked berries; now we go to the mall.
Elbow to elbow with me and all the other ordinary shoppers were half a dozen Hutterite girls and women -- lovely and distinctive in their old-fashioned dresses and polka-dotted headscarves, their rolled and braided hairstyles, their clean-scrubbed faces. In the dialect of their German ancestors, they urged each other to sniff this one, then that one, while their bearded men waited patiently outside in stiff black hats and woolen suits.
8 Comments:
Patia,
Love the "postcards" idea and your first one, and I thought your Christmas card photo was great. Keep it coming!
Diana
That's awesome! :)
(And sweet pea is such a good scent, mmmm)
Beautiful mental postcard. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, ladies!
"Postcards From The Middle" of America? I'm sure you'll find some edge. I've been immersed in the Amish and Mennonite sects at work lately because of a pediatrician I've written about who's dealing with strange diseases that result in these closed societies in Lancaster PA. Pretzel Syndrome and Maple Syrup Urine Disease (yup). The New York Times did an 8-page article on him (a little overboard, but far more interesting than mine). His name is Holmes Morton. Go to www.nytimes.com and search his name. Fascinating. A Norman Rockwell doctor with a Affymetrics 10K Microarray Scanner in his closet! I wonder if anyone is working genetic research wonders on the Hutterites?
Hope you had a happy.
Rick
Well, Montana isn't exactly "Middle America." Although eastern Montana is more so than western. But the state in general is West, not Midwest. (Touchy, touchy!)
I've actually heard of Maple Syrup Urine Disease. Weirdly enough.
Those are my favorite Bath and Body scents too!
Granny, great minds think alike! Have you sniffed the new "Breathe" line? I really love the Serenity and Romance scents. Comfort is also nice.
In fact, I'm just returned from another trip to B&BW, where I exchanged a few things and bought still more. It's like a grown woman's candy store!
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