sense memory

[porcupinepie]

I was at the mall Sunday with my daughter and her godmother. I bought a Yankee Candle. I am not a Yankee Candle person. I avoid smelly stores at all cost. No Bath and Bodyworks for me, thank you very much. Everything in those retail establishments has an underlying odor of plastic

Comments

[lost_contacts]

It's incredible the effect that smells can have on you, even years after the fact. I don't like florists because the smell of flowers reminds me of my great-grandfather's funeral. Similarly, I love the smell of brewing Red Rose tea; it means that dinner is almost ready (all you need to do is add the ice and sugar to the tea). On this last scent, I must confess that I bought a box of Red Rose tea out of nostagia, and I brew it every so often...

Your post was very sweet, very evocative.

[porcupinepie]

Thanks. At our house, iced tea meant Lipton granules from a can. Open the lid and a wisp of sugary tea-dust plumes up.

Red Rose tea. A good smell and a nice detail.

[samsara66]

Roses,Roses! My mother used to wear Sweet Honesty (which always makes Honesty by Billy Joel pop into my head, damnit); it came in that same glass jar with the metal lid, with a heavy undercurrent of rubbing alcohol. It was dark red. I remember the Avon lady coming over (a woman my mother worked with, they used to sit at our big dining table and smoke and drink RED ROSE ICED TEA while sorting through the samples) and I would smell her perfume samples, Roses,Roses being one of them...I always wanted one of those solids, the kind that look dangerously like lip balm but most assuredly are not, just ask my poor mouth. The most I ever got were those tiny aluminum tubes of lipstick and they always broke.

[augsyox]

There are two smells that do it for me. Just like Andrew, whenever there is a strong scent of roses, I immediately think of my grandfather's funeral, which was the first time I saw a dead body. It sucked that it had to be someone I loved. But the second is the smell of fresh-cut grass. At my parent's old house, Dad and I would play catch during lazy summer afternoons until we wore ourselves out. Then, we'd sit down down and just talk about whatever was on our minds. This would always happen after we'd tag-team cutting the lawn, or our neighbors had just cut theirs. God, I miss those times with him!