In the cartoon Rose is Rose, it doesn't take much to turn mother to child. A water sprinkler, a wad of cotton candy, a pretty flower all have the power to shrink her down to a time when life was new, fresh and exciting.
Nothing pulls me back in time like a smell from my past. Creosote and salt water, wood smoke, mossy banks holding in the moisture of life...
For some reason, my strongest smell associations remind me of my grandparents. The scent of fresh tomatoes and dirt and hot pavement conjures memories of Grandpa Hugh. Granny Ruth smelled like fabric and starch. Just to brush past a juniper shrub floods my mind with memories of Grandpa Wyatt. Grandma Alta smelled of fabric, salt water and green onions.
Then, of course, there was Old Spice and Soap on a Rope.
What smells conjure memories for you?
2 comments:
A "Sunday dinner" pot roast....my Mam-ma's house. A propane cookstove and red beans...my Granny's house. Coffee and scented candles...my Mom's house when the house is full of company.
Scent is so powerfully linked to memory...it amazes me.
Musty damp smells always take me back to the those stormy nights in Oklahoma when we were forced to bunker down in the neighborhood cellar for hours … and unfortunately reminds me of the really gross slugs we’d often find lurking there.
The clean earthy scent stirred by the first few sprinkles on the dry ground. It conjures images of refreshing rain after a long dry spell.
The perfume of a fresh cut rose brings back thoughts of my grandmother’s flower garden and how as children we’d leave a small bouquet of flowers on her doorstep on May Day … usually her own flowers.
Honeysuckle ... Jasmine ... Evergreen ... Peppermint ... cinnamon ... baking bread ... Play-Doh ... the list is so long.
But perhaps most strange, I find that the distinctive sharp pungent odor of a skunk always seems to bring a smile and the sweet memories of long country drives and summer evenings around my grandparents place in Arkansas.
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