Smells, odors, aromas, scents, fragrance, perfumes......boy do they have an effect on us! I was browsing in a cute little garden shop in downtown Franklin the other day and they had baskets of homemade soaps. I smelled one called "Roses" and was immediately transported back to my childhood...hugging my Grandfather's neck. He always smelled of Old Spice, tobacco and Rose Milk lotion. He used that lotion on his face and his arms every single day. There was another bar of soap called "Cloves" and it reminded me of those 10 cent candy sticks from The Cracker Barrel and also the packs of Clove flavored gum we used to get from the gas station when I was a little girl.
Isn't it strange how smells can do that in an instant? Think about the smell of a brand new box of Crayola Crayons...the 64 pack with the built-in sharpener on the back. Breathe in deep and smell childhood! Who could ever forget the faintly sweet plastic-ly smell of Play-doh? The smell of a brand new vinyl lunchbox? The baby-soft smell of Baby Magic lotion or Johnson and Johnson's No More Tears Baby Shampoo? Each of these smells are etched on our brains!!!
Some of my favorite smell-memories are the rich green floral smell of Prell shampoo that my Mamaw used to wash our hair with as children and the Tame Creme Rinse. She'd wash our hair and then comb it out and let it dry...making precise parts in our hair with an old pink rat-tail comb before braiding it. How about Toni home perms? Now THAT'S a smell that will take you back (not to mention make your eyes water!) Haha!!! Aqua-Net hair spray and Lux or Cammay Soap takes me back as well. Gee-Your-Hair-Smells-Terrific was my shampoo of choice as a teen.....and for my young teen-aged underarms. ..... I relied on Tickle Deodorant.....in a variety of pretty colors/smells.
My Mom always wore the perfume "Tabu" and my Mamaw wore "Sweet Honesty" from Avon. If I concentrate hard enough, I can still remember both in my mind. My Mom's purse always smelled good.....like the Spearmint Freshen-Up gum she kept hidden inside. At my Mamaw's house, we kept our out of season clothing stored i a giant wooden chest...filled with moth-balls. Moth Balls absolutely REEK, but I find that it's not an unpleasant smell to me now, because it reminds me of those days when the weather was either getting warm or getting chilly and we would change out our entire wardrobes from the depths of that wooden chest.
I can remember how the kitchen would smell every morning when my Mamaw would bake her homemade biscuits, brew her cup of coffee and fry my Papaw's eggs. A little bit of home-comfort haven, that smell!! I remember how the kitchen would smell when it was summer "canning" time. Sometimes sweet and sticky if we were making jam or preserves...sometimes vinegary when we were making pickles or pickled okra.....sometimes just like vegetables if we were putting up beans or tomato-vegetable-soup mix....and REALLY stinky when we put up Sauerkraut and REALLY, REALLY stinky when Mamaw made beautiful cans of what she called Chow-Chow. I remember listening for the hot jar lids to "pop" indicating that our hard work was magically preserved for the winter months. Oh, how I miss those cooking smells! It would be hot as blazes in that kitchen....a giant brown box fan from the 1950's blowing hot, fragrant air heavy with humidity and the scents of whatever was boiling on the stove. Such simple, happy times.
I remember the smell of our kerosene heater....but that was not a pleasant smell at all. I hated that heater! I loved the smell of our wood burning stove though...rich, warm and spicy smelling. I remember stretching out on my belly on the floor, covered with one of Mamaw's hand-made quilts and listening to the Braves games on the radio with my Papaw (back before the Braves were winners, mind you!). There were nights when my Papaw would holler out to my Mamaw, ''Bea! Pop us some corn! This ballgame needs some popcorn!" And my Mamaw would smile, go to the kitchen and take out a deep, black, heavy iron kettle and pour the grease in and very soon, I would hear her shaking the pot back and forth on the stove burner and then you could hear the faint pop-pop-pop....followed very closely by the amazing smell of freshly popped corn. Then she would melt butter...REAL butter in a skillet and pour it over those tender white kernels and top that with a generous helping of salt from her giant white salt shaker. Oh that smell was heavenly!! On cooler nights...on towards the World Series games, Papaw would instead say, "Bea....cook us up some chocolate!" And Mamaw would smile and go to the kitchen, pulling out a big pot and pouring whole milk in it....she's mix the Cocoa Powder and Sugar with just a pinch of salt and make magical mugs of hot chocolate that made our whole house smell like an uptown bakery!! I've never liked chocolate much....but her mugs of hot chocolate were a complete exception from that rule and a very rare and special treat that my Papaw and I shared, making it even more special.
There were other smells that I can very distinctly remember: The slightly oily, slightly metallic - but rich and clean of the inside of my Papaw's tool box; I remember the hot electric smell that the wall-heater in our bathroom gave off as it heated the freezing cold air of our tiny bathroom in the early mornings when I was getting ready for school on winter mornings. I remember the gasoline and paint odors of my Uncle JC's garage when we would go to visit. I remember the sweet, fresh smell of the sheets and pillowcases after they had been washed and hung out on the clothes line to dry. Is there a better smell than that? I loved the first few nights of sleeping on those fresh clean linens because they smelled so nice!!!
I remember Mamaw's cornbread smelled when it was baking (somehow, hers not only tasted better than mine does now, hers SMELLED better cooking too! Even though I use HER recipe!) <3 I remember the way Christmas smelled when I was young: Like the fruit and nut bag we got from church: Oranges, Apples, nuts and peppermint candy!! To this day, when I peel an orange, it reminds me of Christmas! Thanksgiving smells like turkey and Mamaw's "dressin"...rich with sage and celery. Afternoons smell like her little Fried Pies. When I open a new bottle of Dr. Pepper, it smells like my childhood after school snack time. My Mamaw would open a single glass bottle of Dr. Pepper and divide it between 3 teacups: 1 for me, 1 for my little sister and 1 for her. Then we'd have her homemade sugar cookies or maybe a Little Debbie cake to go with it.....all the while, answering her questions about what we had for lunch that day and what we learned in our "lessons" as she called them. I'd give anything to share a Dr. Pepper with her at the table again and just talk.
I remember school smells too! Anyone else my age love the smell of that blue mimeograph ink? Probably as toxic as nuclear waste, but it smelled SO good! And the papers would sometimes still be warm when the teacher passed them out! I remember the smell of a room full of yellow Number 2 pencils and the smell of those perky pink erasers.....and even the pine-scented sicky-sweet smell of that brown stuff the janitors would sprinkle over vomit in the hallways when a kid would throw-up. I remember the good smell of our elementary school store that smelled like candy-sticks, school supplies and ice cream! And the smell of our elementary school cafeteria when they baked those delicious rolls! The slightly musty, almost mildewy smell of an old library book still sets my nerdy heart a-flutter!
I have enjoyed sitting here, thinking back to all the things I remember mostly by smell. Weird isn't it? That one sense can trigger such vivid memories! Makes 'scents' to me! :)
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