Smells and Memories

Orange Blossoms

Baking Bread

It's funny how different smells can trigger memories. I mostly thought of songs as memory triggers. I recently received an email and it asked for your four favorite smells. Thinking quickly, a few popped into my head. But after really thinking about it, I began to think of some favorite smells and the memories associated with them:

Orange Blossoms - growing up in Orange County, I used to smell this a lot. It is like perfume. My memory associated with it is when HH and I bought our new house (19 years ago now). We used to drive through an orange grove to get there. It smelled heavenly. The excitement, the kids in the back seat and the smell of orange blossoms.

Baking Bread - It was always a treat when I would go to visit my Nanny and she would be baking bread. I could eat nothing else. It smelled so good, it tasted so good and I loved my Nanny. Great memory for me.

Diesel Fuel - When HH and I lived in London, all the buses ran on Diesel Fuel. It filled the air. If we were out for a whole day, I would have a headache and would feel like I had a layer of diesel fuel grime on me. So whenever I smell this, I think of myself walking down a busy street in London EXPLORING.

Movie Popcorn: All buttery, a big huge tub. Whenever we went to the movies, we got a big tub of buttery popcorn and a coke. MMMM (I never, ever, get that now. I also associate popcorn with being on a diet thanks to microwaveable bags).

The Beach - The beach consists of the ocean, the sand, the hot sun, music and SUNTAN OIL . Whenever anyone opens up a bottle of Coppertone or Hawaiian Tropic, I am transported back to my high school days when I spent way too much time at the beach. Newport Beach to be specific.

I could go on forever. These are the ones that popped into my head after some consideration.

What are your favorite smells?

It kept me busy as a child...

Do you ever see an image and it sends you down memory lane? Back in the 70's, when I was a kid, I didn't have my own pool, video games and a mom who didn't work. My friends and I had to make our own fun. When I saw this picture, it brought back memories of how we used to run through the sprinkler and then lay on the hot cement sidewalk. We would then pop up and see our body's shape in water on the cement. I can feel the hot cement when I think of this.
We used to ride our bikes everywhere. My mom worked at K-mart and in the same parking lot was Thrifty drug store. We would get triple scoops of ice-creams like this for 25 cents.

Whenever we needed any money, we would collect all the bottles we could find and take them in the wagon to the liquor store and turn them in for on the spot cash. $2-$3 went a long way back then.

I had a portable record player and I would go into my room and play

Donny Osmond records while reading Tiger Beat. I would take the posters out of the center and hang them on my closet doors.

There was a 7 eleven behind our neighborhood. I would have to climb a block wall to get to it. I couldn't wait each month to get the new one. We never had magazine subscriptions at our house.

I used to collect these horse figurines. I had at least 30 different kinds of them. I don't know exactly when I got rid of them. I think when I entered high school and we moved to a new house. My mom didn't put the shelves back up so the horses never made it to the new house. They went the way of my Holly Hobby bedding and canopy bed.

I collected everything that had anything to do with Barbie. She still has a soft spot in my heart. I loved Barbie. I would spend hours with my girl friends setting up all the stuff and dressing her in different outfits.

I had a really cool set of purple click clacks.

On summer days when my mom was at work and I was bored, I would ride my bike to TG&Y and buy material and patterns to sew or workbooks to occupy my time. Fun stuff in that store.

I remember going to Foster's Freeze with my uncle when he would come and visit. I loved their sundaes or ice-cream cones dipped in chocolate.

Thanks for indulging me in some of my childhood memories. I'm sure you have some of the same or they maybe triggered some of yours.