Smell My World.

Have you ever smelled melted butter when it hits graham cracker crumbs? How about the smell of a child that you love when they get out of the bathtub and you're towel drying their hair? The smell of Wrigley's spearmint gum reminds me of my mom...she chewed it when we were kids and that combined with the smell of her hairspray gives me a sense of security and love that I can't even put into words. The smell of watermelon Jolly Ranchers and Coconut takes me back to the old swimming pool in Farmington where we spent nearly every day of the summer during our early teenage years. The wafting of stale beer through the air puts me in Steve's green Toyota which automatically makes me hear AC DC in my head. When I smell campfire wood burning, every good feeling that I've ever had about spending time with my Mom, sisters and nieces comes flooding back in waves of happiness. Those summer camping trips are absolutely among the very best parts of my life! Have you ever smelled your significant other? I mean...really breathed in their scent? It's not something you can describe, but it is a scent that wraps itself around you and lingers to let you know that you are loved. When I smell cinnamon, I think holidays. When I smell rain, I think of playing with Michele as little girls, running around in our underwear and t-shirts with big, bright smiles on our faces as the rain soaked our curly hair. The scent of an instrument case puts me in my high school band room and every other band room I've taught in since then! Those are very fond memories. Not so fondly, anytime I'm in a hospital, inevitably I run into the odor of cancer. Once you've smelled it, you'll never forget it. This smell-memory of my Dad's death was and is a painful reminder of my first year of teaching when he got sick and passed. Not so nice, but then life isn't all about niceness, now is it? Back to the good ones...vanilla wafers remind me of Grandma Dunn. She kept them in the bottom drawer of her brown metal cabinet in her kitchen. Just where we could reach them. Vanilla wafers and denture cleaners...that's grandma's smells for me. Dad smelled like Juicy Fruit, cigarettes and coffee. I miss him. Cigars and car engines remind me of my brothers. Always smoking cigars and always working on an engine of some kind. Liz Claiborne is the perfume that I wear. I've worn it since I was 16 when the other Steve gave it to me for Christmas one year. I loved it so much, it became my signature scent. Rubbing alcohol has a distinct odor that puts me on Monday nights taking my injections. Whenever I smell Kentucky Fried Chicken, it reminds me of my sister who worked there while she was in college. It hung in her uniform long after it had been washed! Popcorn popping always puts me in a movie theater, just like it does everyone else, I'm sure. That warm, salty, buttery scent is really overwhelming. I wonder what kinds of scent memories are still to come in my life...hopefully the rest of them will all be happy smells. That's just it...SCENTS are happy,SMELLS can be happy or acceptable and ODORS offend our ofactory sense. Never really thought about it that way before now. Not that it matters...except to my nose.