Wake up and smell the coffee! Years ago I was attending a Vineyard Church which was right above a Dunkin Donuts in Waterbury, CT. Try staying spiritual with an aroma so appealing to the flesh as coffee & doughnuts!
And, oh, my nights of working second shift, driving home through Prospect I'd pass a home with a fire cracklin' in the fireplace on a cold, crisp December night; how good that hickory smoke smelled! On summer nights I'd come home to my little pad on North Main in Naugatuck, and the porch had lattice with some night-blooming flowering vine (honeysuckle?). That soothing aroma welcomed me home.
Now I'm no psychologist, and I can't explain for you the science behind that connection between smell and memory, but as an artist I can sure write about the magic! You know the smell of hot tar when the town is patching the winter's potholes (and the Mayor is up for re-election)? Love it! It always takes me back to my kindergarten days, walking home from the bus stop. Reminds me of simpler times.
Another odor concoction I love is the blend of coffee and wall paint (gotta love those VOC's). Fresh coffee + fresh paint = fresh beginnings. Always reminds me of moving in day.
My nephew's wife, Casden Anderson, remarked that if Yankee Candle ever came up with a scent that smelled like a newborn baby's head, she'd buy out the whole store! (Some of you think that baby smell just evolved by chance. Yeah, right.)
And who doesn't love that smell of the salt air when you go to the beach? Some folks love the smell of deisel smoke (I'm not a fan). Others love the smell of books in a library. Then there's always the lady who wears that perfume that just drives you crazy! She might not even be all that good-lookin', but she smells so nice, ya just wanna eat her! Don't look at me in that tone of voice; you know you've felt the same way.
When I was a kid, my Mom never had to call us down to breakfast in the morning: that smell of bacon frying in a cast iron skillet pulled us out of bed and down the stairs! A few years back, some hoods bushwhacked the Pizza Guy after giving him our address as a ruse. They jumped him and took his cash. They took off and he took off, leaving two boxes of hot, steaming pizza on our front porch. Two o'clock in the morning with the smell of bacon & pepperoni pizza, and here we couldn't even eat some because it was crime scene evidence!
I could go on and on; time would fail me to tell of the sleazy boardwalk smells of the Carnival, the onion rings and fried dough at the Agricultural Fair, cigars, pipes, cinnamon, maple syrup, steak barbecuing on the grill, cheap beer and French fries at the bowling alley, even the smell of pesticides and fertilzers in the home improvement store. Fresh cut grass? Autumn leaves?
Whatever the occasion, whatever the season, smells are one of the things we love about life.
DISCUSSION: What are your favorite smells? What memories do certain smells conjure up for you? What feelings do you associate with various aromas?
I too love the smell of freshly cut grass and the smell the fireplace gives off in the winter. The one smell that always takes me back is the smell of a fresh pack of crayons and elmers glue. Makes me feel like a kid again.
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