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things that remind me of happier times

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Kerry:

I find smells particularly evocative of past times. Smells are capable of jettisoning me right back to another era, decades in the past.

This particularly happens to me when I'm least expecting it. I could seek out these smells for a deliberate, planned journey down memory lane, but that's not nearly as powerful as when I come upon a certain smell unexpectedly during the course of my day. It's the random, unexpected nature of the surprise encounter that makes the experience all the more startling.

A few such smells that do it for me:

* Carnations - My Mum grew carnations in the garden when I was a child. To this day (I'm 59), when I smell a carnation, I'm a little boy again in Mum's flower garden.

* Lavender - Yardley's English Lavender perfume was my Mum's fragrance of choice. For me, lavender will always be sacred to the memory of my darling Mummy.

* Patchouli - I had lunch with a friend last week, in one of Sydney's trendy inner-city cafe strips. We were making our way back to the car, along a crowded pavement. Someone in close proximity to us on that pavement was wearing Patchouli. Suddenly I was jettisoned back to the 1960s! I was a teenager again! 

* Jasmine - In the 1970s I lived with the man I love, in a beautiful place overlooking the ocean. Next door lived a gorgeous elderly gay couple, who had been together for many, many years. Jasmine grew everywhere throughout their beautiful, overgrown garden. To this day, when I smell jasmine on the evening air in late winter/early spring, I'm living in that house again, with the man I love.

Front-Ranger:
Here are the smells of Brokenback Mountain that I posted on the Roundup Topic:

Smells of Brokenback for your fantacizing pleasure!!

That fabulous after-rain ozone smell
 
Conversely, that dry dusty smell
 
Lodgepole (classic pine) scent, mixed with Ponderosa pine (a Cloroxy after smell, verging on come scent)
 
Animal shit and methane
 
Leather
 
Sage
 
Resinous scrub oak and juniper
 
Sulfur (from geysers and hot springs)
 
Horsemint
 
Oil, diesel and gasoline fumes
 
Chicken fried steak
 
Chocolate ice cream
 
Sweaty tent smell
 
Beer, whiskey
 
Cigarettes
 
New-mown grass hay
 
Kerosene
 
Exhaust fumes
 
Barbequed meat
 
Burned coffee
 
Fresh sheets
 
The smell of wind
 
Rocks baking in the sun
 

southendmd:
Mandy, thanks for sharing your olfactory memories.

Makes me think of my own, departed Dad. 

Two smells stand out, mostly from childhood.

1)  Wintergreen.  Dad always had a roll of wintergreen lifesavers in his pocket.  Always.  Not peppermint, but wintergreen. Such a clean, fresh, bright scent.

2) Aramis aftershave!  Just like your Dad, Fiona.  I remember my Dad teaching me to shave (at age 12), and splashing on the Aramis afterwards.  Later, when he was sick in the hospital, and I was feeling particularly helpless, I offered to shave him.  I made a big fuss, with hot towels and all, and he loved it.  Plus, a little Aramis. 

Kelda:
just seeing this now Mandy.

 :-*


(((MANDY))))

How are things now?

min:

--- Quote from: injest on November 15, 2008, 10:24:31 am ---since my sinuses have gotten so bad, Mandy, I dont' smell anything much these days (actually probably a blessing considering my life... :-X )

but I REMEMBER smells

the ones I miss the most:

the smell of the river ( I know, the river stinks) but we waded in it...using a stick to test the bottom and fished. I remember how relaxed and quiet it was.

the smell of a new book - I miss that one very much.

the smell of mimeographs? You remember the old purple papers the teacher ran off in the mysterious 'teachers lounge'?

honeysuckle

campfires



--- End quote ---

I can't smell much of anything either.  The smell I remember best is that of my daughter when she was a baby and had just had a bath.

I hope things are better for you now, Mandy.  Both of my parents are dead too and I miss them both.

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