We smell something and immediately our brain conjures up a memory, a picture from the past. How this happens isn't a mystery, at least from the scientific point of view. It all relates to the olfactory bulb which connects smells to the area of our brains that store memories. (How our brains can even store a memory when memory is so mercurial is an amazing feat.) So when we smell a certain scent, our brain wakes up the memory and we can see it as an immediate, almost tangible thing.
At this moment my house smells like Thanksgiving. There is bread rising so it's a bit yeasty but there are turkey legs in a pot being slowly turned into turkey broth that will end up being delicious gravy for Thanksgiving dinner. Sage, parsley, rosemary, garlic, onions, so many aromatics infuse my small cottage with the smell of so many past holidays. All I need to do now is bake a pumpkin pie and it would be perfect! Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves would round out the scent menu and my mouth would be watering all day long.
But think of all the things we smell that trigger great (or not-so-great) memories: the smell of freshly cut grass evokes long, hot summer days. Pipe smoke (very rare these days) reminds me of my Dad who occasionally smoked a pipe and mixed his own tobacco. After-shave lotion reminds me of Macy's department store, walking past the aisle that sold men's personal care products. Incense brings back memories of the late 1960's, sitting cross-legged on someone's bedroom floor, listening to Jefferson Airplane albums and drinking cheap wine.
But some smells go both ways: wood smoke always smelled like winter to me but now it also has the frightening connection to wildfires. Both of those memories are triggered at the same time.
Right now I am enjoying the smells of the holidays coming out of my kitchen. Turkey stock and baking bread definitely invoke the beginning of the holiday season and I am enjoying every memory the smells create.
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