The "Jack Neiss' Olfactory Memories" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking at the Facebook page titled "The Lancastrian" when I came across a post written by member Jack Neiss called "Smells" - a look back with Jack Neiss.  As I read it I was taken back in time to the 1950s by a fellow who evidently grew up in the same era as I did.  He took the readership of "The Lancastrian" with him as he toured the different sections of the city and told of the smells that one might find before the Clean Air Act and EPA regulations.  I normally don't post items that others have written, but there is no way I could tell the story better than Jack had done, so I contacted him and asked if I could re-post his story on my blog.  What follows is his story of growing up in Lancaster County and experiecing all the smells that go with a town known as the "Garden Spot of America."  Thanks, Jack for the really neat story!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

“SMELLS” 

a look back with Jack Neiss

Back in the 1950s, before the Clean Air Act and EPA regulations, one could almost walk around Lancaster City blindfolded and have a general idea where they were just by the aromas that reached our noses. Those of us who were around back then will remember the big tall industrial smokestacks which dotted the city landscape. Kunzler's, Dodge Cork, Armstrong, F&M College, Lancaster General Hospital, PP&L, Engelside, Bayuk Cigar, Hubleys, RCA, etc., any place that had a coal fired steam boiler. Many of those burnt soft bituminous coal which could get quite smokey at times if the draft wasn't properly set. 

Once cleaner air regulations came about in the 1960s, many were converted to natural gas, putting an end to the smokey cloud which sometimes hung over the city.  Speaking of natural gas, does anyone remember the UGI gas works at Union and Dorwart Streets?  Before the advent of natural gas, we burnt manufactured coal gas which would be stored in two giant girder framed vertical tanks which would go up and down in height according to supply and demand.  This coal gas, which was manufactured on site, had a distinct pungent odor which always seemed to permeate that area.  Anyone who played ball at Pond Field in the early 1950s will remember this.  

On the other end of town was the railroad yard. Standing on the foot bridge in the late 1940s, one could immerse themselves in the smells of steam locomotives on one side and the chemical odors of linoleum being manufactured on the other. On the west side of the footbridge we encountered an area for scrap metal shavings from the Bearings Company which were deposited in a pile beside the sidewalk before reclamation. Oily ground water, milky white with a distinct odor all of its own, made its way freely under the bridge toward Dillerville Rd.  This would never happen today.

Down town had its share of unique smells also. Roasted peanuts on East and West King Sts., the enticing odors eminating from more than a few downtown restaurants and the smell of beer from the bar at Queen and Chestnut, which always seemed especially strong to me for some reason. On E. Orange St. right off Queen, we found PP&Ls two giant rotary convertors purring away with their faint but distinct smell of ozone eminating from the open front of the building.  

More distinct though was the smell of animal feed tickling the olfactories going by Eshelman's Feed Company in the 200 block of N. Queen. Here was one city smell where you knew where you were right away. Eshelman's gave that block an ambience all its own it seemed even though there were other places like that throughout the city where you could figure out where you were even if you were blindfolded....Keppel's Candy on N. Queen, the Gunzenhauer Bakery on N. Prince, the sometimes sickening smell escaping from Consumers Foods on N. Plum on one side of the railroad tracks and the smell of baking paint from Hubley Toy on the other.   Tobacco warehouses dotted the city; those too with their distinctive tobacco odors; Harrisburg Pike, N. Prince, S. Prince, Charlotte and Mary Streets.

And then there was the honeysuckle.  When the Pennsylvania Railroad built the Lancaster Station and the Low Grade freight line, it planted honeysuckle along the right-of-way. The east end of Lancaster Station had a big honeysuckle patch below the old Lititz Pike bridge and more behind the former Little Pig diner at New Holland Pike.  Maybe some of you        remember this.  I always enjoyed running the Low Grade line after a summer                    thunderstorm.  Almost solid honeysuckle from Creswell to Atglen.  A true sensual              experience, something you don't usually get running a train.                                              

                                                                                                                                        

 Out of all the smells, there are a few I miss most of all. One of which was the outdoor        burning barrels where I, and probably many other kids from my era, got an opportunity to play arsonist and burn a week's supply of newspapers, cardboard, bills and anything else.   inflammable trying to make as much smoke as possible.                                                       

                                                                                                                                         

Finally, there was the smell of burning leaves. The autumn pastime where we built giant curbside leaf piles and then set fire to them, sometimes several in one block.  No free range burning.  We had to keep an eye on what we were doing.  I found an incense the other week called "burning leaves".  A bit of nostalgia when I lit a stick.  So much of this has disappeared in today's world.  That's why it's nice at times to just sit back and remember.