My Friends Call Me "Super Sniff."

[persephone33]

 Something that someone said or commented on in the last few days (my memory is shot, thanks, Ethan and Aaron) has prompted me to think about smells, and how certain aromas trigger memories for me.  Does this happen to everyone?  

One of my favorite smells is my Granny's house.  I don't even know if it still smells the same;  my grandparents moved to a nursing home last year, and it makes me sad to think that their house, where my father now lives, won't smell the same.  When I stayed with Granny as a child in the summertime, her house was filled with good smells!  She hung her laundry on the clothesline to dry, so when she brought it in it smelled of sunshine and laundry soap.  Granny made pickles as well, so sometimes it smelled of dill and vinegar, making my nose burn and want a taste of those sour, crunchy cucumbers more than any other vegetable in the world.  She was known to fry up a chicken to a golden brown and she made a new pie each morning, so that when I awoke in the morning I smelled pastry crust, coffee and bacon.  If I could go back in time to watch her make her burnt sugar pie, or better yet, her chocolate pie, I would in a heartbeat.  It makes me sad, nostalgic and happy all at the same time.  

Another great smell for me is the theatre.  As an audience member, the theatre doesn't smell the same as for someone who works there.  By showtime, the cleaning crew has been in so the really good aromas are tamped down with cleaning products.  For an actress, the theatre smells like coffee and fresh cut lumber, new paint, the dust burning off the lighting instruments during a tech run, cigarette smoke and cinnamon gum, peppermints and glue.  

Re-reading that, I can see where those smells all together might not sound pleasing, but for me, they are.  Go figure.

At home, I really like Hemingway candles from Hobby Lobby and the smell of ground coffee beans.  And clean little boy.  That's a good smell, too.

What's your favorite smell?

Comments

[xoxrhapsodyxox.livejournal.com]

From my early childhood, one smell remains most firmly in my memory: homemade biscuits with peach jelly. My great grandmother always made homemade biscuits anytime we visited her. The smell wafted through out her entire house, which was small and cramped, one of those rather old farm houses with tiny doors. My great grandmother, Grandma Bolton as I called her, died when I was seven and while I can't picture her in my mind, I can remember that smell of biscuits and peach jam.

[jandjsalmon.livejournal.com]

Smell...this is going to sound cheesy... but I remember smells of boys. Even now - eight years later - if I smell some random guy smell like Jay did when we were dating I get all swoony. He wore this cologne that his sister sent him from the states that we can't get here. Every once and a while I get a sorta whiff of something similar and my heart tunrs into a 19 year old pile of goo. ;)

Hmmm... and clean little boy (or girl too, in my case) is wonderful. I love cuddling a newly bathed baby...

[maureen.livejournal.com]

Ah, smells. I totally know what you mean. Out here in Arizona, in the spring, the smell of the blooming citrus trees is overpowering. Especially at night...the air is just perfumed with a jasmine-y smell. I'd know that smell anyway.

Also, there is this bar back home that has always smelled a certain smell and whenever I'm there visiting and walk in...time falls away.

More than smells for me, though, is music. I've been a big music nut ever since I was a kid and certain songs/artists/albums can just take me right back to places in time.

[caramelsilver.livejournal.com]

My favorite smell is rain on warm tarmac.It reminds me of May 17, Norway's national day, and ice-cream!

[dragonsangel68.livejournal.com]

I adore the smell of sandlewood. My sixth grade teacher had a box made of sandlewood on her desk and I could never resist opening it and taking a whiff whenever I was near *g*

Now, I love the smell of freshly ground coffee :)

[maureen.livejournal.com]

Oh....me too! On both smells. Hi, I'm Reenie...by the way. Just saw your comment and had to relate. Coffee especially, but I'm a major sandalwood fan as well.

[dragonsangel68.livejournal.com]

Hi! Sandalwood is just such a peaceful smell :)

[jazsekuh.livejournal.com]

I love the smell of autumn, when you go outside on a clear blue sky day and you can just smell it coming. I also like the smell after it rains. And the smell of a lake because we used to go sailing a lot when I was a kid. There's probably a thousand more but those are the ones that come right to my mind.