Jul 28, 2002 9 min read

Are there fragrances that, when you smell them, can carry you back through time? We know that pleasant memories of days gone by can be evoked by a faded photograph or a chance meeting with a long-lost friend.

A whiff of a particular scent from the past can also conjure images from our childhood days.

A few weeks ago, Ward and Arlene McCoy posed this unusual question to the Reader Roundtable.

“We were searching the Web,” they wrote, “looking for the name of the perfume that G. C. Murphy used to sell in the 1950s…It’s one of those things that’ll drive you crazy. Could any of your readers help?”

Ward and Arlene, the nominations are in from our readers, and it appears that two particular fragrances have carried the day.

Vicki Vavases Thornton of Cumberland, Md., sent us her candidate.

“I saved up my allowance to purchase Evening In Paris perfume at Murphy’s,” she e-mailed. “Murphy’s also sold another popular fragrance called Blue Waltz,” Vicki added, throwing another name into the ring.

“My sisters and I loved Blue Waltz,” declared Maxine Post Ridenour of Alexandria, Va., “which was indeed sold at Murphy’s.”

Thelma Farmerie was very familiar with Evening In Paris perfume. “My husband bought me perfume and boxed sets for every occasion,”

Thelma explained, “and the name I remember is Evening in Paris. In the ’40s through the early ’60s, I used to have bottles and gift sets piled in my closet.”

Hmmm. Piled in her closet? Was there a reason that her supply of the popular fragrance was not used in a timely fashion? Our next contributor may have provided a clue.

“I always bought Evening In Paris for my mother,” recalled Sally Chalfant of Jesup, Georgia, “as I thought the bottle was the prettiest thing I ever saw. It was cobalt blue, with a silver cap.”

Oh, and one other thing.

“It smelled awful,” Sally said.

“Everyone bought it and wore it, and it smelled terrible,” agreed a Connellsville reader who requested anonymity, perhaps to spare the feelings of her now-grown children, who had annually presented her with the odoriferous eau.

Evening In Paris holds a special place in the heart of at least one reader, who has never let go of the memory.

“My mother has kept her small, cobalt blue bottle of Evening In Paris after all of these years,” revealed Liza DeCamp of New York City. Her mother, Betty Lou Shabin of Manhattan, still has the bottle that she bought in Brownsville’s Five and Ten back in the 1950s. “She is very sentimental,” said Liza, who sent me a photograph of her mother’s treasured blue bottle of Evening In Paris.

“As a little girl,” recalled Paula Terreta Skrobot of Columbus, Ohio, “I thought Evening In Paris was a very expensive perfume. I think I purchased some for my mother for Christmas one year.”

Believe it or not, Evening In Paris and Blue Waltz perfumes can still be purchased in 2002, although finding a source involves some detective work.

The Vermont Country Store is advertising on its web site [vermontcountrystore.com] that in October, it will become “the only company in the United States offering Evening In Paris for sale.” The web site touts the perfume’s “classic rich floral scent” and urges its web patrons to “Reserve your Evening In Paris now!”

And how much does this once-popular decades-old perfume cost in the 21st century? A glass spray bottle containing less than two ounces will set you back $48. Perhaps that explains why it isn’t sold in five and ten cent stores any more – if you can find a five and ten cent store.

As for Blue Waltz, if you would like to re-experience the aroma of that old-fashioned fragrance, the Vermont County Store has great news for you.

“There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the faces of our customers,” the company’s web site declares, “when they rediscover the hypnotic scent of Blue Waltz perfume on our shelves here in Vermont. We especially enjoy hearing how this once popular fragrance evokes memories of high school sweethearts, sock hops, and bopping to the jukebox down at the local malt shop. What treasured moments from your past spring forth from this magical little bottle?”

Judging from the 2002 price, Blue Waltz isn’t as magical as Evening In Paris with modern women. Three 5/8-ounce bottles of the potion can be ordered from the Vermont Country Store for only $12.

But would you want to? Don Laughery of Catonsville, Md., weighed in on the subject.

“The only perfume I remember from the five and dime is Blue Waltz,” said Don. “This was the only perfume that a kid with a dime to spend for Mom’s Christmas present could afford. Naturally, mothers would be ‘thrilled’ at the gift. I think a few of them actually wore the stuff.”

Do we detect a little sarcasm there, Don?

“It came in a very small bottle,” explained Don, “and ranked (how’s that for a choice of words?) among the worst odors I can remember.”

Don is not alone in panning the pungent perfume.

Pettus L. Read, editor of the Tennessee Farm Bureau News, recently penned an article in which he recalled the most unforgettable smells of his youth. In his essay entitled “An Aroma Always Remembered,” Pettus compared the ‘bouquet’ of Blue Waltz perfume to another familiar aroma from his childhood years. Pettus has kindly given me permission to share his tale, which shall bring down the curtain on this reflection on olfaction.

“As Spring begins to make its appearance,” Pettus wrote in April of this year, “with all its beauty of colorful flowers and different hues of greens, there will also come the many aromas. The smell of fresh meadow flowers and peach tree blooms will soon fill the air. The air will also contain the hum of bees going from new bloom to new bloom, along with even a larger hum of lawn mower motors filling the fresh spring air with smells of the ever-present aroma of cut grass.

“The other night I was reminded of another aroma that occurs around the countryside that doesn’t have a thing to do with spring, but it sure smells just the same. During a local civic club meeting, a group of men were excited about and discussing the details of an upcoming chitlin supper to be held in a neighboring community. They could hardly wait for the doors to open at the community center for the Saturday night event. I have personally attended these hog intestines eating suppers and have never developed a taste or smell for their consumption.

“However, there are many folks who do, and if that is what they enjoy doing, more power to them. Whether you call them chitlins or chitterlings, the aroma is still the same. When you drive into the parking lot, you immediately know you have arrived, as the smell of cooked hog intestines drifts through the night air. The important thing to remember is to never stand downwind from cooking chitlins. This ‘fabulous’ food can be consumed either fried or boiled. Fried looks sort of like breaded chicken or fish. Boiled looks like boiled intestines. This in itself should tell you something.

“The one thing I have noticed at these suppers is the large consumption of hot sauce. I guess it helps with the taste, or it burns your taste buds so badly you really can’t realize what you are eating. And believe me, chitlins do not taste like chicken. Maybe more like a bi-product of chickens, but not a thing like chicken.

“The smell of cooking chitlins can only be related to one other aroma I have smelled in my life. It occurred when I was in the sixth grade, which was several years ago. In the fifties and sixties, Woolworth and Ben Franklin five and ten cent stores were located in most Tennessee towns. In this grade, boys started to like girls, if they did not interfere with baseball practice or if they could do neat things like crack their knuckles.

“At Christmas time, if a boy liked a certain girl he would buy her a bottle of Blue Waltz or Evening In Paris perfume at the five and ten cent store for about that price. Whenever that bottle was opened, it would take over the air supply in a classroom in a matter of minutes. I have seen teachers open classroom windows in blinding snowstorms, just to rid the room of the sweet smell of Blue Waltz.

“The bottle was pretty, but the odor it gave off could cover up the smell of ten upset skunks on a still and cold October night. It could even kill the smell of cooked chitlins. There are just some odors you never forget. Like the smell of a polecat on a frosty night, a dead horse, your gym locker at the end of school, full of gym clothes you never carried home, Blue Waltz perfume and cooked chitlins. I would have to put Blue Waltz right up there with the dead horse and polecat. Chitlins are in a category of their own . . .

“It is amazing how certain things stay with us. Maybe I’m different than others by remembering odors, but once you have lived them, it is hard to forget them.

“Chitlins and Blue Waltz, I will never forget.”

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Glenn Tunney may be contacted at 724-785-3201, glenatun@hhs.net or 6068 National Pike East, Grindstone, PA 15442. Comments about these weekly articles may be sent to Mark O’Keefe (Managing Editor – Day), 8 – 18 East Church Street, Uniontown, Pa. or e-mailed to mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com . All past articles are on the Web at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~glenntunneycolumn/.