Any Social Worker who has done home visits understands what I mean when I say "the smell." My SW friends and I have actually dedicated many hours over the years trying to disect what filth is combined to produce "the smell". It is lack of ventilation + dirt + mold + trash + b.o + that little extra something that makes it permiate through a closed door.
They were a nice enough family. The mother was a witch (the kind that did spell, not the kind that rhymes with the B-word.) and the father was chronically unemployed. Their kids were always caked with dirt and wore flannel in 100 degree weather. The trailer was old and broken down. There were random animals running around the dirt yard.
And there was "the smell". It was all encompassing and stuck to your hair. It enduced a gag reflex and made you want to quit your job and go work at Wal-Mart as a door greeter.
I had visited this family several times, menthol rubbed inside my nostrils made the visits bearable. But one day was different.
Mother answered the door so excited. She exclaimed "I found the smell!!"
Oh happy day for us all.
"It was the maggots that were livin' under the carpet! I knew it felt squishy!"
Social Workers. Our work is nothing if not glamourus.
I think you should add the scent of roach feces to that list. When we moved into our current home, which was a foreclosure, I had to clean TONS of the previous owners roach bodies and apparently roach feces. When the vacuum was on the place was filled with "the smell" and no one had lived here in months! Looking into the canister I decided it was roach feces. SO glad I was able to get it out!!
ReplyDeleteHow could I forget? Of course, roach crap that spread across the walls and counter tops add that sparkle to the aroma :)
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