The other day Tim noticed I had a bottle of English Leather Cologne sitting around.  He splashed some on his face and asked if I remembered all the cologne we had sitting on our dresser following the Christmas of 1965. I, of course, remembered it well. He recalled we had about 11 different brands of cologne sitting on top of the dresser in our room. We then tried to recall all the kinds we had, and after listing Hai Karate, 007, Jade East, English Leather, Canoe, and British Sterling, we could not recall the others! UGHH, I think old age is catching up with our heretofore-impeccable acute memories. In fact, it’s scary that I can recall things in detail from 40 years ago, but not something 40 seconds ago! That’s probably one of the main symptoms of Alzheimer’s, but the scary thing is that I can’t recall the symptoms!!! Woe is me! What really makes me feel old is that such scents as Hai Karate and 007 colognes are not even available these days! In order to get pics of these, I used my ingenuity and went to EBay to find pics! Hey, I doubt there’s nothing in the world you can’t find at EBay! If I had the extra money, I would have made the minimum bid of $15.00 on a vintage ½ full bottle of Hai Karate I found on EBay while looking for the pic. As of late, I was busy acquiring Perry Mason tapes from EBay, but due to not getting my first retirement check (OHHHH, that sounds so gooood) yet; I’ve had to drastically curtail my EBay buying habits. I guess in 1965 everyone figured we would want the latest cologne scents, hence, the reason we had so many. I’m thankful they still make English Leather and Jade East these days, because I’ve used them since High School and they keep me “in the 60’s”, at least the scent does at any rate. When we were kids, the only time we ever used men’s cologne was when Uncle Ned would slap some Aqua Velva aftershave on our faces after we watched him shave. I remember how it really stung our young sensitive skin. We first started wearing colognes on our own when, thanks to sudden pubescent hormone production, we woke up one morning and decided that girls no longer smelled obnoxious and we did! Since being farmers, we only took a bath once a week or so, usually on a Sunday night, it made good “sense” to wear the “scents” to try and attract girls, which was ALWAYS unsuccessful on my part! The one thing I miss is that although English Leather still smells the same, the top is no longer real wood, but plastic! I used to really like the wooden tops on English Leather bottles, as well as the metal tops on Jade East, rather than the plastic tops these days. The no longer made 007 James Bond Cologne is very clear in my mind because as can be seen in the pic, it resembled a microphone. This “microphone” was used many times for my acting out fantasies of being one of the Righteous Brothers (the one with the deep sandpaper voice) in “singing” with my “You’re my Soul and My Heart’s Inspiration” record. I was lip-syncing before it was trendy! These fantasies were of my “singing” in front of hundreds of crazed girls acrimoniously screaming at my every talented lyric and willing to sacrifice anything to go out with me. Later on in life this fantasy was gnashed by the reality of having girls scream at me but NOT for my talented “singing”.  Although I do have the ubiquitous Old Spice ship bottle on my shelf, I rarely wear it because as a kid only “old men” wore that scent. I rationalize that as long as I refrain from using the Old man Old Spice, I will never become an old man! Hey, you have to understand the dynamics of a Paxil-laden brain.  Another sidelight is that the reason we used to wear Canoe a lot in High School and later in college was that we always heard there “were aphrodisiacs in it”. If there were, they didn’t seem to work for me. We also heard the same rumor for Ambush perfume as well.  On the other hand, who needs fancy expensive colognes!  I can say, as for me, there are NO scents in the world better than fresh cut hay and horsehide! I love to go out in the barn after we stow a fresh batch of hay in my hay mow and then put my nose against one of the horses and smell their hides! Sounds like heaven to me! But then again, I think I’ve always had common “sense” when it comes to common “scents”!