Casual Conversation: The Smell of Old People

You called to complain that after the Lunar New Year, your husband's parents are coming to visit for a few days. Your husband and the kids are very happy to be staying with their paternal grandparents.

The whole family ate, laughed, joked, and talked about all sorts of things. However, my in-laws had a strange, unpleasant, musty smell… Hearing this, I laughed out loud; it's a characteristic smell of old age. As people get older, their metabolism slows down. Sugars and fats are harder to eliminate and tend to accumulate in the body, leading to that "strange smell." If you're used to it, it's normal. But because you hadn't seen your in-laws in a long time, you found it unpleasant.

Suddenly, I remembered the scent of my mother and grandmothers from the old days. I was the youngest of a family of over ten members, so I had the privilege of sleeping with my mother until I was eighteen and went to America. Every night I would snuggle my head into my mother's lap, especially when Ninh Hoa was stormy and windy, letting the warmth of her skin and the faint fragrance on her clothes and hair, washed with soapberry, lull me into a deep sleep.

My maternal grandmother and my adoptive grandmother live nearby, while my paternal grandmother occasionally visits from Nha Trang, staying overnight with her children and grandchildren. The common thread among all three is that they've chewed betel nut for decades, so their teeth, hands, feet, and clothes are permeated with the pungent, sour, and spicy scent of betel nut, mixed with the aroma of Eagle Brand oil and eucalyptus oil to ward off headaches and stomachaches. I love being close to them, listening to their stories of the old days, and swaying in the hammock while they sing traditional Vietnamese opera. Whenever we run out of betel nuts or areca nuts, I rush to the market to buy some, then prepare and grind them for them to enjoy.

It's easy, really. Just brush a little pink lime onto a green betel leaf. But don't brush too much, too much will burn your tongue. Then roll it up, add a piece of fresh or dried betel nut that has been soaked until soft, a piece of bark (made from tree bark), then put it into a copper tube, and use a pointed stick to pound it slowly until soft because the women's teeth are weak. My grandmother and great-grandmother would put it all in their mouths, chew slowly, then take some tobacco to rub their teeth, and put it in one side of their mouth for a look of pleasure. After a while, they'd reach for the aluminum tube, spit in some red betel juice, and continue chewing leisurely. One betel quid after another, many times forgetting to eat because they were so engrossed in chewing betel. I asked my grandmother and great-grandmother if they liked chewing betel. They said it was delicious, they'd get tipsy after chewing for a while, and they'd become addicted. One day I was clever too, I prepared a piece and put it in my mouth to chew. I tell you, it was so bitter and spicy it felt like the heavens and earth were on end.

Older people nowadays rarely chew betel nut or use strong, pungent medicated oils like eucalyptus. Children also have fewer opportunities to live with their grandparents, so when they do meet, they often dislike the smell of the elderly. My mother passed away more than twenty years ago. My paternal and maternal grandmothers, as well as my adoptive grandmother, have all passed away, becoming figures of memory. Sometimes, I miss my hometown and the people of the past, and I long to go back, sit beside them, hold their wrinkled hands tightly, and press them against my cheek, but I can only meet them in fleeting dreams in a foreign land filled with storms and hardships.

I've traveled the world, eaten many exotic and delicious foods, smelled countless fresh flowers and expensive perfumes, and sometimes I suddenly long for the scent of old women chewing betel nut, a slightly pungent, musty smell, yet fragrant with memories.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhan-dam-mui-cua-nguoi-gia-185260328173211733.htm