Have you ever noticed that particular smells remind you of certain times, places, and people? Your sense of smell is a strong trigger for memories. Here are a few of mine:
Violet Water – this smell reminds me of my Mom, especially when combined with the scent of Youth Dew perfume. I would often sneak sprizes of these toilet waters from my Mom’s dresser where she kept her perfume selections. These remind me the most of her.
Rising Bread Dough – the yeasty warm smell of bread dough that is “resting” before being baked never fails to invoke thoughts of my Father who used to prepare fresh bread every weekend during my early childhood. Old Spice also can remind me of my Dad, or the smell of a pipe which he stopped smoking before I was a teenager. Going into a tobacco shop can instantly bring to mind my father’s pipe clasp between his teeth on Fall afternoons while he was changing the oil on the cars in the drive-way.
Drakkar Noir – I remember my brother drenching himself with this assault on your nostrils that he would call cologne. I think he thought it’s scent would seduce the teenage girls into ignoring his heiniously bad 80s hairdo and have them falling at his feet.
Chalk and oil paints – these always bring me back to my first art teacher who was a friend of my family’s through our temple. In fact, her mom was my Sunday School teacher at one point. My art teacher was maybe in her late teens when she showed me how to use watercolors, charcoal, and pastels to render faces, hands, and inanimate objects on a page. She even explained to me the meaning of the Car’s song “Who’s Gonna Drive You Home Tonight” when my youthful inexperience thought it was about someone drinking too much at a bar.
Peaches – whenever I smell peaches, even in my bubble bath last night I can’t help but think of my Grandma on my father’s side. She liked Peach Schnapp’s and would offer it to us kids every now and then. It was such a treat that sweet peachy goodness it made me feel like an adult sharing something special with her.
Clean Laundry – when laundry is fresh and warm straight out of the dryer the smell sets off a cascade of feline memories for me. All the cats I have had or known have loved clean, warm sheets, underwear, shirts, and jeans to knead, burrow under, or simple curl up on.
Chlorine – reminds me of my Mother’s parents, my Nana and Papa who had pool when I was little and I closely associate the smell of chlorine
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Right now my smells are all about Connor, who has a unique scent signature that instantly intoxcates his mommy and gets the protective mommy hormones flowing.
The smell of lavender soap reminds me of my mother.
The smell of lilacs reind me of France. So does thyme.
Honeysuckle reminds me of walking to Livermore High School, because a house I had to pass had huge drapes of honeysuckle along their front fence.
Hay reminds me of the horses we had growing up, and the ranches with their feral cats and aggressive geese.
Strawberries remind me that there are still good things in the world.
Connor reminds me that that the life should go on.
The older I get (I'm in my mid-thirties), the more scents trigger memories -- i.e., a certain cologne (name unknown) reminds me of my father; pot smoke reminds me of certain friends (though I don't smoke anymore); a certain deoderant reminds me of one of my better exes, etc.
It's even worse with music... (dramatic sigh), LOL.
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