Smells like money

Everytime I go back home to my rural hometown on the "Great Plains"...I am suprised at the tidiness of the people. I am suprised to see the old churches in the center of towns, and that these towns some how still exist. I am surprised I grew up in such a matter of fact place. A place where people do talk, so you better watch your step. The wind blows hard all of the time, men have learned to walk with hats on hands free, and women learn to walk with a baby on their hip so the wind won't take the babies breath away. You can tell what time of the year it is by what the wind is carrying with it. In the winter......it just smells like dirt, snow, maybe burning wood, you can smell the steel mill from down the highway. In the summer in the heat I swear you can smell the alfalfa, and corn, and wheat.......and on some nights if you are unlucky the rendering works plant. In the fall you can smell burnt leaves......and drying ragweed and goldenrod, cut corn and hay. In the spring in smells like cow shit. I am 5 years old and in the back of my Dads Ford standing between the seats holding my nose, and I can hear my Dad saying "Smells like money", and I am squinting as the huge red sun sits on the highway.