Ever since I accidently ate bad whip cream as a child, I smell
everything before I eat it. The experience was so awful and scarring I keep
working and improving my sense of smell if only to never eat expired dairy
again. Plus I got a fairly large yet strong nose so it helps.
When I found myself killing time in the duty free shops
in between flights I was amazed how
much of my life is flashing before my eyes when I walk across the perfume
shelf.
Anything can trigger it basically. It may attack you walking
into a room, opening the car window, bumping into someone on the street,
walking into a market, a restaurant, an elevator, the train or whatever. These small
flashbacks catch us unprepared and paralyze us for a few seconds.
Each person, place and memory has a unique smell that is
filed in our archives. For me at least it is very hard to remember a smell by
memory but the opposite happens all the time. With a single whiff I can vividly
feel the moment I last or first smelled a memory.
 |
| I remember.. I remember!!! |
The Nose Knows
The perfume shelf is basically a direct access point to
these archived memories as they are filed by scent.
The smell of my first love which I haven’t thought of for a
while, the smell my cousin wore at this wedding she danced with me and I wanted
to puke, the perfume my grandmother sent me 15 years ago which I’ve never used,
my grandfather’s after shave which meant I won’t itch after he gives me a
thousand kisses, CK One just reminds me of everything happened between 91’-95’, the girl who left in the morning leaving only a hint, the one
still sitting on the shelf in my late friend’s room, the old spice from my teen
years, the one I used when I stayed the night and the one smell who seems to
make my eyes work as well..
And then the airport’s McDonald’s smell.
Try it the next time around.
Try it the next time around.
If you are anosmic I’m very sorry for this post.
