'A childhood anecdote, preferably one which connects into an experience which you had recently, thus bringing together the past and present together.'
Well, I have just such an experience but, to be honest, I normally wouldn't have written about this particular historical rainbow but that's also because I haven't really been writing about anything of late. But you have thrown me the challenge of writing about a historical rainbow so here my most recent historical rainbow (which by the way, is a great phrase!).
I've just recently got reacquainted with candles. I lived in a house last year where all the other girls were into candles. Meh. Just wasn't fussed on them. I think it was because it takes some restraint from me not to mess with them. Back in the Park, we used to play with them. One particular thing we used to do was pour melted candle wax onto our hands. Sure, it burned for a while but then it cooled and you got to pick the wax off. No, really, I don't know why we did it either.
Anyway, last year when I left school, a student gave me 6 big Ikea tea lights (which may be the oddest leaving present I got. Ikea candles are not pretty, they're…functional). They stayed in my storage room at my parents' for months (why yes, I have a storage room. It's my brother's old room which I have commandeered for the overflow of my stuff). When I was home just before Christmas I grabbed them and took them back up to Belfast. They sat on the coffee table, still in their cellophane, for a while until Jud came round to help me decorate my Christmas tree. Well, I say 'help'. She unpacked my Christmas lights and then went to get Chinese and by the time she was back I was done. Well, I didn't have a lot to put on, you see.
We watched Christmas movies and to add to the ambience I lit the candles as they had a vague smell of Christmas about them. Turns out I can restrain myself from messing with the wax. (Actually that's not strictly true, but I think it's important to note here the apartment block is still standing.)
Anyway, I've got so into them that I went to the Yankee Candle store after Christmas and bought some tea lights with the fragrance 'Christmas Cookie'. I like Christmas. I like Cookies. And most importantly, the colour of the wax went with my living room. I put them in the dish on the coffee table, happy with my purchase.
But then, every once in a while I got this familiar smell. It took me a few whiffs to put my finger on what it was - both where it was emanating from and what it reminded me of. Once I worked out it was the still new candles (in my defence it probably took me seconds to work this out), I worked out that the smell of this supposed Christmas Cookie was exactly the smell of Tiny Tears, my doll I got c.1984 from Santa.
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| Here is that very Christmas. I don't think Grandpa knew what he was doing here; I don't think you just smoosh the baby into the pram to make her fit. |
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| See Grandpa, watch the expert: you lift her out of the pram by her armpits. |
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| This is her now, well two years ago when I tidied all the stuff in the eaves. Here she is wearing a Bunny uniform. She didn't get as many badges as me. That was probably on account of her being not a full member. |
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| Rainy Day Tiny Tears. By the time you get the rain…onesie(?) on you can pretty much be sure it'll have stopped raining. |
I know what you're thinking, the smell of a doll that is thirty years old? But it's true. Tiny Tears has a weird sort of plastic-y smell that smells of my 1980s childhood. I don't know if it's her hair, or just the plastic, but there's a smell. Definitely not unpleasant, it just smells of Tiny Tears.
With Christmas being over, I did what any self-respecting Tiny Tears fan would do. I went back to the Yankee Candle store and bought up more Christmas Cookie candles before they were packed away for another year.
Well, who doesn't want to live amongst the ye olde leprechauns in a historical rainbow?
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