smell-o-ries

They say that smell has the strongest connection to triggering memories. I am not a huge fan of perfumes (most of them are so flowery and remind me old ladies) but there are a few scents that send me back down memory lane…


1. apples (candles, air freshener, pies, etc)- growing up in New England. The scent of apples reminds me of the onset of fall, when the air becomes crisp, the days grow shorter, the leaves change colors-fall to the ground-and crunch under foot when you walk over them.

2. Gin- Christmas. Gin tastes like Christmas trees smell (do you know what I mean?) If I close my eyes and take a sip of Gin, I am sitting on the floor, next to the dazzling tree on Christmas morning, eagerly waiting to open all the packages from “Sanata.”

3. Tide Laundry Detergent- a summer day. My mom used to use Tide (before it began bothering my skin) to wash our clothes. She would hang the clothes up on the clothesline outside (although my dad thought this practice was SO tacky and that our neighbors didn’t need to see our laundry, dirty or not!). There was nothing like pulling on a shirt that smelled as fresh as a summer day!

4. Charcoal grill- Cape Cod. Growing up we always went ‘down the cape’. Our summer vacation house didn’t have a gas grill, so we always went old school, and used charcoal. Now, no matter where I go, even if it’s the dead of winter or driving through the inner city, the slightest whiff of charcoal reminds me of Sessler summer’s spent down the Cape.

5. White Musk- Mrs. Gratton, the elementary school nurse. It wasn’t even like I went to the school nurse a lot, but her scent just stuck with me. Hey, maybe in some secret sublinaml smell kind of way, she is my inspiration for choice of profession.

6. Blueberry- my old neighbor. She moved away when I was 11, but her mom always used to burn a blueberry candle and it was the first thting you could smell when you walked throught the door.

7.Coppertone suncreen- summers, down the cape, sand stuck in every oriface of my body

8. Leather- my car, "The Virgy"...she may have been 10 years old when I got her, but she still smelled of fresh off the lot leather

9. Abercrombie and Fitch Woods cologne- my first real boyfriend, my first real......okay, TMI, sorry

10. Degree Body Wash- my college boyfriend, you could smell him showering in the hallway, and sneaking up behind for a surprise snuggle/kiss/hug (whatever was appropraite for setting) *side note- I'm not real comfortable with PDA

Hope this post prompted someof your smell-o-ries and stroll dowm memory lane.