Not too long ago I was standing in line to pay for a purchase when suddenly memories of being seventeen years old at the beach with my girlfriends were flooding my mind.
I could almost hear Hermit’s Hermits or Paul Revere and the Raiders melodies coming from the radio set to WLS Chicago.
For just a moment I didn’t realize what had brought the memories but then I got a whiff of the woman who stood in front of me… Coppertone suntan lotion. That was the scent which took me back in time. Her deep tan was an indication that she had recently been to the beach. 🙂
![fall scents for your home](http://www.livingbetter50.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Our-Aroma-Opium-Oil-Banner-2.jpg")
Isn’t it amazing how our memories are linked to a scent? Along with Coppertone, there are a few other scents which could take me back to the early 1970s… Wind Song, Heaven Scent, Musk Oil… just to name a few perfumes.
Various scents coming from the kitchen have a similar affect. The aroma of bacon sizzling as coffee brews will always remind me of waking up at my mother’s house when we would visit.
The smells surrounding a Thanksgiving meal brings back years and years of spending the Holiday with my in-laws. Even today we have to taste the turkey and have someone comment that it is dry, just as my melancholic mother-in-law stated every year. 🙂
Of course, there are the aromas of Christmas… perhaps the most magical of all scents from my childhood.
Few adults would think the combination of peppermint, chocolate, ham, caramel, fudge, mashed potatoes, green beans cooked to death in pork, and evergreen trees could possibly be beautiful… but they were to a six year old! The combination meant Christmas Day.
The aroma of woodsmoke on an autumn day in combination with Sweet Annie always brings memories of walking through The Feast of the Hunter Moon as the days of the French and Indian traders were reenacted.
When we traveled back to our parked car on a shuttle bus each year, I knew we had to return to present time but for a few hours we were transported back to the 18th century.
I love the smell of old books. Even today when I open an old book, the aromas of musty papers and old leather not only make me sneeze but they can transport me to the original County library of my childhood.
It was a magical place, beautiful in Gothic architecture. It was like going to a Cathedral. I don’t know how any child spending time there could not fall in love with books.
As I pondered these things in the past week, I thought of how… once again… it was the little things that brought the fondest memories. 🙂
Originally posted on Coffee Tea Books and Me.