It's no secret I work in a school, and right now, it's science fair time! One of the students made a project had to do with scent and how it can help hold memories. They were trying to see if you smelled the same scent every time you studied, would it help you remember the facts when you took the test?
This felt like the perfect topic to talk about! Scent plays a role in so many books. How often do we read about what our hero or heroine smells like? Literally every romance novel talks about how the heroine smells of lavender, or peaches and cream, or strawberries. The hero smells of sunshine and leather, or of pine and man...and I love all of the descriptions!
Scent is tied to so many things, that of course we'd mirror that in literature. And I'm guilty of it too! Most recently I've used vanilla, coffee, caramel, or maybe I'm just hungry when I write ;)
But the idea that scent is tied to memory is so true! My dad lived in Germany for years and he said that one time when he came home, his whole house smelled different. He couldn't put his finger on it, but the scent really made him homesick. A bit later when he opened the mail, he'd found a letter from his mom and she'd included orange blossoms from their trees. He didn't expect to smell California in his German home, so it hadn't occurred to him that it might be orange blossoms!
I've had instances where I smelled a certain perfume that reminded me of my grandmother, or a food that reminded me of the county fair, but nothing as cool as the one my dad had. But how about you? Do you have any instances where a scent unexpectedly triggered a memory?
And here, for your reading pleasure, my heroine who smells of vanilla, and my hero who smells of sandalwood:
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Several times during the year after my Mamaw died, I would suddenly smell her scent at my home. I would say, "Hi, Mamaw, I love you." and the scent would disappear just as abruptly as it appeared. She was checking on my.
ReplyDeleteOh that's lovely
DeleteThe clearest memory of my grandparents' house was the scents. It wasn't until long after they were gone that I identified one of them. My sister and I laughed a long time because I had such an emotional attachment to the aroma of Lysol spray. :-)
ReplyDeleteAww, that's sweet
DeleteSo many scents trigger memories. One is petunias because my grandmother always had purple and white petunias. The most treasured memory is that of my mom's face powder. She and my grandmother used the same, Coty's. I have considered buying a box just to reminisce. It's old-fashioned and hard to find, so I think I'd better hurry. Gardenias also remind me of my mom. On Mother's Day when I was a child, my dad would buy a gardenia corsage for me to give her. My Hero husband doesn't really have a special scent. He says the best scent for a man is no scent. My dad always smelled like his cigarettes, rolled himself from Prince Albert tobacco in OCB papers.
ReplyDeleteThe student's science project sounds clever. I wonder at the results.
That Coty airspun is a really good powder, too! What a happy memory
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