Scent and Memory Collection

[avad]

childhood memories

what is a favorite comforting smell for you? something that soothes you whenever you smell it? perhaps all the way from childhood or not.

for example, the steam of cooked white rice really soothes me. whether it's my own or just opening the box from the chinese food place and the steam wafts out. I breathe it in intentionally....reminds me of home I guess.


comforting scents(collected from friends):

Hiroyuki Hamada: I cooked some rice this morning and it was exactly the comforting smell. It was really cute that our 3 year old pointed out how nice it was.

Erin Logan DeRosa: garlic sauteeing in olive oil, fresh basil, and lavender.

Peter D Kolb: my father smoking a pipe

Scott Powell: Eucalyptus. When I lived in NY I dabbed it on some cloth decorations I hung at the entranceway. Whenever I came home I'd get a little whiff ... so nice. oooh ooh, Starbucks' caramel apple spice :D

Jenny Beckman: the smell of tea and toast like mama makes!!!

Millie Rivera: cinnamon sprinkled on top of morning hot cereal.

David Gonzalez: Apple cinnamon, burning firewood, benil, barbasol shaving cream, baby powder, charcoal, the beach, garlic.

Marcia Karen Mednick: the smell of my hubby's shave cream (Neutrogena) or butter melting on just-toasted english muffin.

David DeRosa: A fresh rain in the desert. Leaves in the autumn. Roasting nuts on a NYC street during the holidays. I can't stop. Thank you for making me smile Darlene. Xoxo

Karen Buchner: old roses on a handkerchief, lilacs in my backyard, the smell of hot pavement just after it rains.

Hannah Fame Suhr: in the summer, when i bring my pillow and a blanket outside to lie on the ground with a book, the smell of my bed and the earth/grass together. amazing.

Gregory Bullock: The smell of printers ink as the big Goss press starts to warm up.

Erin Logan DeRosa: sheets fresh from the clothesline, the smell of a freshly baked newborn baby.

Darlene Charneco: greg I was thinking of you when looking at some pics of big printer facilities. Erin, we might want to reword that.;)xoxo

Erin Logan DeRosa: you know what i mean!!!! A newborn....nothing like that smell....heavenly.

Theresa Denise Williamson: Real old-fashioned roses, not the modern mass-produced scent-free ones... (my grandfather was a rose farmer)

Melody Winnig: fresh cut grass and hay, lilacs, jasmine and lily of the valley, pavement after a rain, puppy feet, sage in the desert, the smell of the ocean on my body, strong Cuban coffee, cherry pipe tobacco... i could go on and on Darlene. what a great thread. we could do it for all the senses

Andrea Cote: LAVENDAR! oil in the bath, massaging lotion on Nathaniel's little fingers and toes, tea before bed, sniffing my miraculously surviving houseplant and beautiful purpley gardens in summer... anywhere and everywhere!

please add yours!

Comments

[nyhcx516x.livejournal.com]

Pipe tobacco. My dad used to smoke a pipe. He died when I was 6 years old, but when I smell a pipe being smoked, it brings back a memory so strong, I may as well be 5 years old and on his lap again.

[avad.livejournal.com]

wow. smell and memory are SO strongly linked- i am just fascinated by this...for that exact reason. that is a great example. I felt that way when I smelled my grandma's perfume (Maja). Everything comes back so strongly and clearly...felt like I was sleeping on her lap with her purse nearby (with the tissue pack and yellow box of chiclets inside) and her soft wrinkly hands softly stroking my hair...

[nyhcx516x.livejournal.com]

I think smell is one of the strongest ways to evoke a memory. Smells always bring me as close as I can get to the (person/place/object) in the memory without actually being there. The pipe smell with my dad is so strong sometimes, it actually scares me, i dream so hard, and then get letdown when i realize its just a memory.

[lorigami.livejournal.com]

The scent of boxes of unburned cigarettes. Sunshine on skin. french press coffee. orange trees.

[lorigami.livejournal.com]

(and baby kittens. oh, baby kittens...)

[avad.livejournal.com]

agh, Neil...I'm so sorry. it's true...it's like waking when you don't want to. we can not hold onto it...but we can experience it now and again very strongly. Always a reminder to enjoy what you have and those you love.xoxo

lorigami- those are wonderful. hee. my mind is trying to get at the smell of baby kittens...because unfortunately though I LOVE LOVE LOVE cats and kittens, I'm allergic...so though I could sometimes get away with petting them (if I washed up immediately after) I could never ever put them up to my nose and sniff- that would be...well..ha...the beginning of a pretty strong allergy attack! but I can almost...almossst imagine!

I so love this thread, here and on facebook. I have to add the others from FB- a lot more good ones!

[christine mcgough (from livejournal.com)]

Ah...I love this! I have so many...I find the faint smell of chlorine invigorating, it reminds me of early morning swim practice as a kid. Leather bomber jackets and crisp fall air reminds me of being in love. "Art room" smell...sandlewood soap...I could go on and on...

[christine mcgough (from livejournal.com)]

*sandalwood

[avad.livejournal.com]

Add more anytime! :)

[avad.livejournal.com]

Yes! Wow good ones..faint chlorine reminds me of being on vacation with family in florida when young..that hotel smell and thrill....I went right there with the bomber jacket smell you mention..triggered memories of nestling into one and smiling! Artroom smell definitely...especially the smell of cleanup after art in the room in grade school- those brown paper towels getting wet and the little white bar soaps. I found a lotion that reminded me of that a few years ago and had to get it...but it somehow changed once i got it home and was not quite 'it' anymore. Love these- thankyou!!

[(Anonymous)]

Ha! This brings up an interesting one -- the smell of the air-conditioner when you first turn it on. When I was three or four I would play in front of our wall unit while my bio father played the guitar or painted. Oh, and...the smell of fresh rain on rocks (gravel)... Serene Celia

[avad.livejournal.com]

These are great- thank you Serene.!...brings me in to the scene...as you describe itI hear that pretty load sound ...of the air conditioner when the wall unit is switched on. The sound for me triggers mostly memories of hotels....but also from childhood as the wall unit in my grandmother's bedroom in the Bronx where I would often nap mid-day while hearing the muffled voices of the family talking down the hall in the kitchen area...I remember that half awake feeling and can see/remember the light looking out the back window at other apartment buildings...and I can look around the room (memorypalace) at so many objects and memories...
Mmmm and yes that smell of rain on gravel!!!

[avad.livejournal.com]

interestingly your smell memory of the air conditioner became a Sound memory for me...as in that case it came up stronger for me as that click and loud hum