Home, Sweet Smells of Home...

What are the smells of your childhood that take you back to that place of your roots, of your first beginnings?  My grandmother, Moose, made homemade bread and the aroma -- all day -- permeated the house.  My grandfather's cologne, Old Spice, lingered in the bathroom long after he had left for work.  My other grandmother's apple pie and biscuits and chickens from her coop that she cooked up might have been considered very unhealthy and sinful today but her children have lived to ripe old ages.  Olfactory, smelly thoughts.  No stinky thinking here. 

Pleasant, close-your-eyes and you're there memories.  How powerful --- the smells in our  minds.  What are your strongest wonderful smell memories?

I

made blueberry muffins and kept the batter in the fridge to be able to pop a few in the oven to make the house smell comforty and homey when we needed to sell a house for a move.  It worked magically all times but one, when, in haste to throw the stuff in the dishwasher and dryer and get the dog in the garage, I accidentally put the oven mitt into the oven and forgot to turn it off as I ran around the house with the muffin tin and the other glove spreading the aroma family and comfort through the house.  The realtor had to leave her clients to track down the burning smell.  Geesh.  Dippy me.  That was almost as bad as the only time ever that the dog pooped on the floor and she stepped in it on her way to let other clients in the door.

Chicken soup was our Monday dish that could be served up in ten ways for the week to come, full of soccer games, play dates and whatever. It also was on the stove any time a child was sick.  It really does provide curative effects.

Cinammon toast and French toast and meatloaf are right up there on my repetoire just like my mother's pound cake for inviting, permeating smells.  And then the wassail for the holidays that is more stove spice than something we sip. 

The smell of a newborn baby, freshly bathed.  The smell of roses from the garden.  The memory of my mother's Jungle Gardenia perfume... Roses in bloom outside my open windows at night as I went to sleep... The smell of fresh sheets off the clothes line....

Don't you have intense memories of your roots and your childhood based upon your memory of the aromas?  What is the most gripping?  Do packaged foods do the same thing? What have you replicated?  What have you forgotten that would be good to recreate? 

Comments

[Laundry Woman]

I have some terrifying (literally cause my heart to skip beats) smells.

I think my favorite smell in the world is the smell of my newborn children, freshly bathed. In those moments, I felt I must be the luckiest woman in the world.

[Eleanor Mainwaring]

So many goofy things come to mind...being a teenager in the 60's...my dates wore English Leather...we wore Youth Dew by Estee Lauder. My grandfather also wore Old Spice and my grandmother's yard smelled of lantana...pungent. The smell of turkey cooking is a familiar Thanksgiving smell...patchouli reminds me of college! Bourbon reminds me of college! To this day the smell of pine and fresh cold rain instantly transports me in my mind to Ruidoso...my favorite place in the world. Margaritas or the smell of tequila reminds me of Puerta Vallarta. There is a smell there of onions, corn tortillas, and garlic in the homes of the village people that is so reminescent of Mexico. The salty ocean air is Padre Island or Port Aransas...the coast of Texas. I am very olfactorally sensitive. I can identify perfume on someone with one whiff. Guess I am a person who couldn't bear to lose the sense of smell. Love and need fragrance and smells !