Flashback

I walked past a truck and its exhaust smelled just like Elmer's Glue. You know, the kind that is white and runny and that you use to stick glitter and macaroni onto paper as a kid. The Elmer's Glue smell, however, sparked a different memory in me. There was a boy from India in my fifth grade class. Actually he was there through all of elementary and junior high school. He used to write WACKA WACKA on the desks and chairs. Anyway, in fifth grade he used to eat Elmer's Glue. I think he even put it on a donut once. He was a wierd one--but most boys are at least a little wierd. I foudn out a couple of years ago that he ended up at Georgia Tech in the same dorm as one of my other classmates. Coming from Idaho, that is an amazing coincidence. I probably wouldn't recognize him if I met him and I don't know if we would have anything to talk about. But he remains in my memory with a vividity that I wish I could have for my school lessons from the day before. He is so firmly there that, after years of not having him cross my mind, he can spring into it on an idle Wednesday where I happen to walk past a truck with exhaust that smell like Elmer's Glue.