Stop and Smell the Roses --- or NOT!

Life has a way of dealing some harsh circumstances and there is not a one among us that hasn’t had their share of trials and tribulations. There have been a lot of books written that tell us that hardship brings about character. “They” say that without them we would not grow into the strong individuals we eventually become. “They” actually get paid to say such nonsense, too.

Having been married before, Ol' Dutch has had his share of pain and suffering and so he can relate to most people's problems.

Now Trixie is one who is always about “smelling the roses” which to this mountain man means that even in a bad situation a person needs to see the bright side of it and not the thorns that may be involved. 

Being of deep intellectual mind, I was thinking about such things the other day when another sort of smelling suddenly was sprung on me. Ol' Dutch is not prissy about smells generally and can be found to reek of deer or elk urine or fish slime almost any day of the year so when I got to South Padre Island, the smells on the fishing jetty were wholesomely familiar and, might I say, quite comforting.

There is nothing like the smell of bait shrimp in the morning to make a man feel his oats as that usually means a day on the water and fish to be caught. It has the same effect on outdoors men as Viagra without the necessity of staying at home with the boss on a weekend day. 

Spring break sprung here and suddenly we were inundated with kids of every type and description parading by in everything from baggy shorts to bikinis. Bored with the beach parties apparently, they all seemed to have a need to walk the jetty. Ol' Dutch enjoyed seeing such a display of youthful enthusiasm amongst the normal fishing crowd.

One thing I did notice is that every time one of the girls walked by a certain wondrous aroma would be carried to my olfactory glands. These girls had come to the beach loaded for bear and had on copious amounts of “war paint” and “stink-um” used to attract their prey.

It’s not unlike hunting an elk or deer I suppose and I for one appreciated the change from the fishermen who brought along their own smells for the day.

One thing about fishing weekends is there are a lot of families who come to the jetty for the day and this, too, brings a menagerie of smells to the place.

The women all have enough perfume on to cover up any odors they may or may not emit and there were small BBQ grills smokily adding to the many odoriferous offerings.

Finally the day came to a close and Ol' Dutch had to head in to the beach which required a long parade past the many people still enjoying the evening.

Following a kid of about 10 years old I began to get a familiar waft of smells and looking ahead I noticed a definite brown stripe in his shorts. My gag response quickly became a problem and I had only a few seconds to come up with a solution.

Reacting quickly like a rescue worker processing bodies in a disaster area, I tied a bag of smelly shrimp across my face thereby masking the smell proceeding me down the jetty.

I hope that kid’s mother has some roses in the car to smell as she hauls the kid home or she will have to make a stop to smell some for sure.