What the Fug?

You could imagine what a room sometimes smelt like when there were four young boys in it. There were windows at one end and halfway up the side of the room, but to reach the side windows you had to reach in from under the top bunk to the catches behind the curtain. So sometimes it was easier just to open the end window only. In a town where winter was winter, when it involved frosty mornings, cold rain, wet fogs, occasionally snow, and sleet (that’s snowy rain for those in the tropics). Sometimes during winter you wouldn’t open the window for a few days, and, it was easy for a decent fug to build up.

‘Fug’. Doesn’t it have really terrific sensory connotations? Fog. Muggy. Fumes. Thick. I’ve often used it believing it to mean all that, but, I have checked and it is listed in the dictionary. It’s a British, informal word for; stuffy atmosphere in a poorly ventilated space (or in our world, a room with four boys living in it). Now, given the simple problem say of a wet day or two, of wet shoes, that meant wet socks and wet socks in a warm room? Well, it doesn’t take long to build up a bit of a smell (the embryo fug (fuggis minoris?). Now multiply that by four and probably over two days at least you build up a slightly bigger fug (Fuggis Middlis). Add to that four beds slept in. Under blankets (it was cold remember), and then thrown back to ventilate into the room of damp clothes and wet socks. You start to have a pretty decent fug (fuggis completus) As the temperature cools and there may have been a heater allowed in the room (Our parents didn’t want us to freeze - but make sure it was never left on if there was no one in the room). So with the added heat, the fug gets stronger (fuggis majorus).

Look out if our mother put her head into our room and it had already gone critical. The rear windows would be thrown open. And the side window, regardless of how hard it may have been to reach, mother would get to it. Then regardless of the outside temperature, unless the rain/snow/sleet or hail came rushing in directly, the windows would be left open until we arrived home from school, dripping wet if the weather was such. Then it was a matter of clearing out the ‘ice cold’, but clear-aired room of all the damp clothing, socks and anything too smelly, before being allowed to close the window. It only took a short while before the ‘fuggis minorus’ would build up again. We didn’t mean to create the heavy smell, it just happened. And don’t forget most of our meals were ‘English’ fare. That’s right, corned beef and potatoes … and cabbage. Lets not go there. We don’t need to add any ‘speculation’ to the fuggy atmosphere.

(continued tomorrow)