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?

I just posted about my first kiss a few weeks ago, and then one of my oldest friends (or perhaps I should say 'a friend I've had for a long time?') sent me this email.  I'm so sad!  I thought the location of my first kiss would be forever preserved!  I'm inexplicably saddened by this.  I haven't been there in years, but we used to go there after shows, and I had friends that worked there.  Crap.