The Smell of Cinnamon Always Reminds Me of My Dad

One winter, while visiting my parents everyone piled into our van and off went to the farm to visit my sister and her family. It was about a 45 minute drive to the farm and I was excited to see my sister since it had been a while since I had seen her or her family.

A visit to the farm always promised excitement in one form or another, from feeding the pigs to seeing the new baby calves to steering clear of the peacocks (they are mean!!!) to chasing an escaped bull down the canal bank.

This particular trip was a quick visit for dinner and catching up. It was winter so the kids stayed in the house, the guys were undoubtedly planted in front of the TV watching a game ...just an aside, my brother-in-law is the most hilarious person to watch during a game, he cracks me up!….anyway….the women were probably in the dining room or kitchen, yakking away. We enjoyed our visit and then it was time to leave.

None of that has anything to do with the smell of cinnamon or my dad...but does tell you why we were all in the van together….so, on with my story….

We were returning to our own home the next morning and daddy decided we needed to have cinnamon rolls with our breakfast, he insisted he was thinking of the boys, of course. Knowing that we would need to get packed up and on the road early for our 8 hr drive, we stopped at the store just a few miles from my sisters house, picked up a couple of containers of Pillsbury refrigerator cinnamon rolls along with a couple of other items. Back into the van, and continuing on with the 45 minute drive back to my parents.

It was cold out, snowy no-doubt. Ed turned the heater up, we bundled into our coats and put on our gloves knowing that daddy had built a nice fire before we left and the house would be warm when we got back to my parents house.

POP! “What was that?” “Sounded like the tire blew.” “Doesn’t feel like the tire blew.” “Maybe that truck ahead of us kicked a rock up.” “Didn’t sound like a rock.” And so the conversation went. No one had an answer, but we all had an explanation for the loud pop we heard. It was dark out and there was no place to pull over to see what might have caused that loud pop.

Less than 5 minutes later my dad said he was so hungry for cinnamon rolls he could almost smell them. A few minutes later we ALL could smell them...Then it dawned on momma...when she got into the van after going to the store she had put the grocery bag on the floor of the van at her feet, right in front of the heater...which had heated up the cinnamon rolls causing them to expand and explode out of their containers.

HILARIOUS

The smell of cinnamon always reminds me of my daddy and today it made me miss him so much!