There are certain smells that we smell throughout our lives that can take us back. Just catching a whiff of an aroma or scent will automatically remind us of days gone by. I know you have them. We all have them.
I guess I should call them aromas, or scents, not smells. But I always go back to “smell this”. That’s what I’m asking you to do.
Bacon frying. Shoot, just that image takes me back. Forget the smell? I can hear it. I can taste it. I can feel the grease popping up and burning my hand. But the smell. That is a smell that will always say “home”.
Coffee brewing. That’s another one, huh? I love the smell of coffee brewing. I have never been a coffee drinker but I could/do consider myself a coffee smeller.
Fresh.Baked.Bread. Really fresh-baked anything.
Freshly mown grass. If that doesn’t smell like summertime, I don’t know what does. And sometimes in the summer you can really smell sunshine. You can, can’t you?
Campfires. No explanation necessary.
But the smells I truly love are the ones that remind me of someone. And the ones that remind me of my mom and dad are cherished, but extreme.
My mother loved Chanel No. 5 when we were young. I am sure that Daddy would buy it for her so even today when I smell it I think of the two of them. I have gotten to where I will go by the perfume counter at the department store and spray myself all over with Chanel No. 5. Then I will take these huge breaths so that I can smell the perfume all through the mall. It’s like Mom is shopping with me. When I was in high school Mom used to hold my hand while we were walking the mall and I hated it. Oh, how I wish I could do that today.
The smell that reminds me of Daddy, well actually there are two, is body odor and grease. Gross, right? But when Daddy would come home from work, he usually stank. Today I would think that he stank. But he smelled so good to me. Maybe that’s why I am attracted to men who work physically. They remind me of Daddy. And the grease smell is not cooking grease but mechanical grease. I love that smell. I’ve never admitted it before, but I just love it. Maybe that’s why I have worked in a world where I can smell that frequently if I so choose. Daddy was an electrical service man, but he also was an auto mechanic. He would do “a grease job and oil change” on our cars all the time. I loved to watch him or to help him if he let me. In fact, when I got my first car, he taught me how to do a grease job and an oil change. He was in the process of teaching me how to tune up my 1963 VW Beetle but by that time he was almost blind and in very bad health. He had a friend come over and finish the job. The spark plugs did me in.
There are smells that I cherish now. I know that this sounds weird, but I love the smell of the cow lot. There aren’t as many cows out there now, but I will always love that smell. And then the smell of growing tobacco. I love the smell of fresh-turned dirt. Once the tobacco is hung in the barn, and obviously when it is fired, the smell is what people who have been around tobacco their entire life can’t wait for. The smell of tobacco being fired is one of the best smells in the world. And it can’t be duplicated. We have searched high and low for a candle that smells like a barn being fired. Most of them either smell a lot like vanilla or an old pipe. But when the first fire is lit until the last fire goes out it is heaven to live in western Kentucky. Of course, there are those who don’t like that smell, and don’t like the smell of my husband who has been working in tobacco all day. When they say, “Uncle Jimmy, you stink”, he will take a big whiff and say, “It smells like money to me.” We all love that smell.
