Childhood Smells

Today I had a day full of childhood memories all through the wonderful sense of smell! First of all, this morning I was washing dishes with my lavender dish soap and I just kept "smelling" Grandma. I don't know what she had in her house that was lavender scented, but the smell of lavender always reminds me of her.

Then after taking Oma to the store, Timothy, Stephen and I headed for the backyard. I had to mow our jungle back there before the tigers started to think this was their new home. Ok. It wasn't that bad, but it was getting there! The smell of freshly cut grass triggered memories of summer nights when we would be in bed and Dad would be finishing the mowing outside our window. I can still hear the mower (or maybe it's just our neighbor's still humming tonight) and smell that sweet smell of cut grass...all mixed in with a little gasoline from the mower. Ahhh. Summer!

The older boys and I also dug deep into the garden today and planted a long row of carrots, the same of beets (the boys' request for this year's garden), some zucchini and two bean plants that Stephen planted in school. The smell of that musty, dusty dirt brought back memories of the hours and hours we spent out in the garden as kids weeding and hoeing and messing around when we were supposed to be weeding and hoeing! I never dreamed as a child that one day I would be thrilled to have my own little garden.

Tonight before supper I experienced another childhood smell that was as clear as the days that Mom would create this aroma in her own kitchen! Cabbage and noodles!! I also had some meat on the barbeque, so when I walked back into the kitchen after checking on it, the smell of sauteing onions and cabbage was overwhelming. I had to just stand there and stir that mixture, breathing in the smells that actually brought back specific scenes of Mom standing at the stove stirring the same ingredients thirty years ago.

It's amazing how certain smells can conjour up memories that were almost completely forgotten. Good smells. Bad smells. Unique smells. I wonder what smells are creating memories in my boys' minds that will reappear in their future some day.