|
 “Smell
is the potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles
and all the years you have lived.” Helen Keller.
Is that not true? Where would we be without smells…odors…whiffs and
wafts?
As I was rummaging through my mind on what to share with, one of the
things I remember from this week was my 13-pound furry little mutt,
Augie, eating rotten eggs and then dispersing them the only way he
could.
I really don’t want to get into the catastrophe of letting eggs boil
dry on my stove. Some things one just cannot turn into humor.
Suffice it to say friends are great, grandchildren are awesome,
disaster was averted and little dog’s doo-doo can melt the screens
off your windows. Even when poor Augie Doggie “shot blanks” as the
boys’ say, the odor was appalling. Augie tried to run from his own
caustic flatulence, casting fearful glances over his shoulder.
“One big difference between men and women is that if a woman says,
“smell this,” it usually smells nice.” Coolfunnyquotes.
Novelist, Caryl Rivers, “Smell is the closes thing human beings have
to a time machine.”
I dearly love the smell of books. New books…old books…. magazine
pages…. dictionaries and newspapers. Even legal papers have their
own smell. How wonderous is that?
In trying to conjure up heaven, I image I’m on the big front porch
of the house I grew up in. Mother is baking bread, I’m reading an
old, worn-out book, it’s raining, and Dad’s just got the hay in the
barn. Now…if that isn’t heaven on earth, I don’t know what is. The
smells are a perfect harmony of peace and protection.
Never in a million years when I was raising my sons did, I think I’d
miss the odor of a boy’s room. It was the combination of a locker
room, fishing pond, garbage can, last night’s supper, and wet dog.
It felt as if there was an invisible wall of stink I had to pass
once I went through the bedroom door. Now, they would clean their
rooms and air them out. They would bathe themselves, shampoo their
hair, and dash on deodorant. But puberty is hard on the aroma of a
boy. It didn’t take long for the obnoxious, ever-present smell of
hormones to return to their bodies and their habitat.
“A great scent is a world you can return to over and over…. a
keyhole into another realm.” David Seth Moltz.
Let me describe some of the scents of motherhood. The smell of the
hospital when you are being whisked through in the wheelchair on
your way to maternity. The bleach, pharmaceutical odors, perhaps the
smell of my own fear. Things intensify and intensify until they put
that sweet little bundle in your arms and everything else in the
universe disappears. His odor. His scent. His miraculous entry into
the world is the only sense you feel.
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Then comes the months of dirty diapers, baby powder, wet diapers,
baby oil, sour milk, baby shampoo. The kaleidoscope of aroma,
stench, bouquet, and rancid olfaction continues. It resumes when
they lead you back into their classroom…. reminding you of senses of
your own classroom. The smell of little bodies, chalk, crayons, fish
tanks, cafeteria food and PE lockers. Sometimes I had to literally
shake my head to get out of the memory of my childhood and the
reality of their current childhood. God gives us mighty senses to
get through this life and the lives of others.
Popcorn is a powerful smell. On Sunday night at our house there was
popcorn, Lassie, and Walt Disney. The smell of popcorn and the
bouncing of basketballs on a gymnasium floor brings back memories of
my brothers, sons, and grands. Walking into a movie theater will
send me into my own reel of memories. The popcorn smell fills me
with past films and excitement of the coming attraction.
Rudyard Kipling, “The first condition of understanding a foreign
country is to smell it.”
It doesn’t have to be a foreign country. My first vacation in the
Northwoods taught me that it was my paradise. On other vacations
salt sprayed on my face as I stood with arms outstretched in joy at
seeing the Atlantic Ocean experiencing an indescribable olfactive
sensation. The Pacific Ocean has a perfumatory all its own. How
fantastic is that? The Great Lakes are the same way. This landlubber
will never tire of vacations by the water. The Black Hills smelled
of adventure and cowboys and danger. Gettysburg still smells of
battle, death, history, and struggle.
How about going to the Dells, or any tourist trap and smelling the
taste of fudge until it almost sickens you?
I love zoos. It takes me about half an hour to get the scent within
my nose, throat and mouth under control. The taste of the stench is
overwhelming as you walk in and unnoticed when you depart. How
remarkable is that?
It’s April and I can’t wait until the time to buy plants and flowers
arrive. The smell within the walls of the greenhouse is beyond
description. After the deprivation of a long, hard winter I get
giddy with the realization I can make my corner of the world
beautiful and fragrant once more. My Mac and I loved watching the
plants mature and thrive into exquisite perfume from herbs and
floras that we and the birds adore.
Author Gretchen Rubin, “Embrace good smells. No cost, no calories,
not energy, no time…. a quick hit of pleasure”
Next time a smell makes you happy, stand still and inhale. It can
bring back people and memories better than photos.
“When in doubt, always follow your nose.” Gandalf in J.R.R.
Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”.
Or…...if you’d rather…, Toucan Sam from Froot Loops cereal said
practically the same thing.
“If peace had a smell, it would be the smell of a library full of
old, leather-bound books.” Mark Pryor, author.
L. Maxine McQueen may be contacted at
maxmac.1@juno.com |
