I love the smell of Naugahyde in the morning

I remember being around eight years old and my dad would take me with him when he went shopping for all kinds of cool things he would use around the house and in his work on cars in the garage. We went to flea markets and Army surplus stores back when they really had a lot of used army stuff for sale. I recall walking into a store that had a real air force pilot's used helmet with oxygen mask for sale - boy, did I want that helmet! I had no practical use for a helmet you understand, but when you are an eight year old boy, well, you don't think about that very much. I'm not sure what I really expected to see in the surplus stores but I always was excited to go to one anywhere. I think at that age I half expected one day to walk into one of these places and see a tank for sale. I knew my dad would never pass up the opportunity to buy an army surplus tank - I was sure of that.

One summer back in Oklahoma we found a well stocked surplus store right next to Fort Sill, which is the army base that trains soldiers in the art of artillery. I did manage to talk my dad into buying me a dummy 20mm cannon round. This was complete, not just a shell casing. It was bright silver and while it wasn't live and couldn't explode it was intact as far as I could see. That cannon round became every bomb I needed for my GI JOE to disarm (long before Jack Bauer required 24 hours) or ride like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove.

Dad bought a lot of Naugahyde for upholstery work he did on cars both as a way to make some extra money on the side. I still can smell new rolls of Naugahyde and instantly think of flea markets and driving our car on the way home on a back road from Napa sitting on my dad's lap while steering the car - imagine trying that today! Funny how smells can trigger such strong memories.