May 12, 2008...4:30 pm
moth balls
I know that there are a lot of things about my life that are “stereotypically” Asian–as much as there are things about my life that are totally not “typical.” But why oh why do moth balls have to be in my life?
My mom LOVES mothballs. She’s horrified of the wrath of moths: the holes in sweaters and clothes. And so she sprinkles those little white crystallized napthalene mothballs EVERYWHERE. My parents’ home smells more like moth balls than kimchee, and I have NO idea how a moth can get within a foot of their home. Or really within a half mile. I mean, I wonder if I’ve got moth genetics because that smell makes me want to run very far away.
Still, it’s the smell of home.
And it’s on me. It’s on my clothes. It’s on my luggage. It’s on my PURSE. I smell a waft of it right now, from my purse sitting on my desk just a few feet away.
Moth balls. That’s what I smell like despite my furious spritzing of Robert Piguet’s Fracas perfume this morning.
4 Comments
May 12, 2008 at 10:08 pm
My mom loved moth balls, too, and the smell of them makes me ill.
May 14, 2008 at 11:52 am
I assume that your folks are in LV from your post about your dad and that’s pretty funny because Clothes Moths:
1) Do very poorly in dry conditions.
2) Will not eat cotton, silk, synthetics, but will eat wool, fur and feathers (which I hope your folks aren’t wearing a lot of in LV!)
Basically, there is pretty much no chance in hell of them having a moth problem (in typical stereotype-of-an-Asian-mom fashion you probably have the same chance of getting her to change her ways!)
I will admit I own some MBs (for good reasons) and Mrs. AWUPF HATES them bigtime.
May 17, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Bustopher: they are really a bleah sort of smell arent they
anonwupfan: Ha funny! I had no idea, as my mother’s mothball usage would have you thinking she lives in the epicenter of clothes moth activity.
May 19, 2008 at 3:54 pm
As I drove mom home from the hospital a couple of evenings ago on Saturday, I pointed out a ton of moths congregating around a streetlight. I did so innocently, but this probably had the result of reinforcing in her mind her ongoing decision to flood the house with mothballs. Now, this practice will likely never change.
I also noted that there are a lot of wool items — like slacks, sportcoats, socks — in their closets and drawers.
There are a surprising amount of moths in Vegas and Henderson. Especially when it is 100 degrees at 8 p.m.
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