Hypo clear memories

Cleaning the basement to clear some space for the reloading gear I ran into my darkroom gear. I realized that I had some old chemistry left over. The brew was way old, bottles denting in and long expired; I wouldn't want to use it on any emulsion unless I had nothing else. The way you dispose of home darkroom chem is down the drain with a lot of water to dilute the whole thing.The developer and fix went down the drain first. I wound up gravitating towards the Ilford line of chemistry, partially because they were more-or-less non-smelly.The next bottle was the leftover hypo-clear.As I poured it out the memories poured in.It smelled like the apartment. Smelling it brought me right back to the tiny darkroom I had set up in the laundry room back in Willoughby.It's amazing how smells can do that to you.When I get to the Bay Area I'd like to set it up again. B&W on real film has a feel that is just awesome. The magic of watching the print develop is just that: magic. Ok, it's not, but it certainly looks that way.