Memories in Scents

I've always been amazed at how crisp and clear a moment can come back to you when prompted by scent.  Why is it so much more powerful than a picture sometimes?  Perhaps it's because we take our sight for granted, we glance at a picture and move on to the next as we filter all of the billions of visual images that bombard us throughout our day.  But a scent must invoke a completely different part of our brain - it's almost like our own personal time machine.

So many wonderful memories are tied up in scents.  Some of these are universal, of course, but some of them highly personal.

• White Rain shampoo = our cabin on the lake of the Ozarks
• Black label chapstick = my dad.  The kids love this now too and recently Loretta said "Best smell ever!"
• Vanilla = baking with my mom
• Freshly cut grass = practicing our half time routine with the THS band
• Jean Nate = my mom
• Black licorice = grandma Loretta
• Mixes of different perfumes  - like walking through a department store = grandma Clifford b/c she would let me "test" all of the perfumes on her dresser while trying on her jewelry.
• Pillsbury raw cookie dough = sleepovers with Liz and Susan
• Reeses peanut butter cups = my short time serving frozen yogurt at Yummy Yogurt.  I think I ate my weight in candy toppings that summer
• Sunflower seeds = my dad
• Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific = mom washing my hair in the kitchen sink
• Neutrogena body wash = John, it was the best for removing the smell of a kitchen shift at Union Street
• Bactine = summer scraps from climbing trees and road burn from falling when roller skating
• Chlorine = joining the diving team at the Meadows when visiting the Heplers and Hennessy's in Lisle
• Calamine lotion = summer run-ins with poison ivy or getting the chicken pox
• Lily of the valley = Mom and Dad T's house
• Freshly baked cakes = mom letting us eat the cake tops
• Christmas Tree Pine = Growing up we always had artificial trees, so real pine always makes me think of getting our trees from Dad T since I met John

There are so many more that are eluding me at the moment, but I have no doubt that one of these days soon I'll catch a scent and it will magically transport me to a distant memory.  I love how that works.