Catherine Petroski

I have come to visit Texas, the bayou country. If I sit here the whole week and look at it, it won't impress me any more than it does right now, and right now I am not impressed. It was foolish to come.            [...]

Olliemae smells fried, I thought. It was washday, and we were in the cool basement, with me helping the help. The air was damp and thick with the smell of bleach and Oxydol and later the perfumey smell of starch when Ollie fit the pants-stretchers [...]