Hi! I'm Lindsay. I'm not sure about you, but I generally like to see the person who is talking to me or writing to me. So, this is a picture of me. I hold a lot of positions in life (like wife, mother, daughter, friend), but at the core of it all, I'm just me. Thanks for stopping by! I hope you stay. Enjoy!
I have been wanting to write a "me" post for some time, but I couldn't decide what to write about. I've been thinking about a lot lately, but I haven't really been thinking in much of an organized, logical manner. Tonight, however, I got some inspiration...
I wanted to make up for my lazy day, so I decided to be proactive this evening. I let Mike relax while I took full kid duty. I also got the dishes done, and made a fresh batch of choc. chip cookie dough. I decided to bake a couple of cookies for Mike and I, and I was determined not to burn them! :) When the timer went off for the final time, I opened the oven door, and the smell of natural gas wafted out. Immediately, memories of my grandmother came rushing to my mind.
Believe me, I have smelled the smell of gas many, many times over the past four years. (Since we bought this home). However, I've never linked that smell to my Grandma Burke. Growing up, all of our appliances were electric. The only time I had the opportunity to use a gas range or oven was when I visited my Grandma during the summer or holidays. I'm not sure why that smell took me back tonight, but it was a welcome reverie.
My Grandma was very important and special to me. My visits with her are some of my fondest and most vivid memories of my childhood. My daughter is named after her. And, when I grow up, I would be honored if someone felt that I resembled her.
Did you know that smell is the sense that is most strongly linked to memory? I've always thought it was interesting, because, to me, sight would be the more natural sense to be linked with memory. However, studies show that the slightest trace of a specific scent brings back the quickest and most accurate memory. With the holiday season upon us, I'm looking forward to the scents, sights, and sounds of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Do you have any scents that remind you of something special? Or even just a scent that gives you the warm fuzzies? Tell me about them! I love hearing other people's stories! :)
Comments
Yes!
I'm sure there are several scents that bring back memories for me (and you often don't realize it until you get a whiff of something after a long time), but there is ONE smell that ranks high for me and I can't even tell you what it is exactly...it is a special soap scent. It was the soap that my Great Aunt Irma (my mom's aunt--who was like a grandma to me since I never knew my maternal grandmother) used back 20-25 years ago. Her bathroom smelled like it and so did she. A kind of soap that an older lady would use, but I love it!
We used to spend a lot of time at her house as a family and then I'd spend days with her on my own...so many memories of all of the homemade Italian food she used to make--noodles, broth, ravioli, spaghetti sauce, delectable treats. And the applesauce doughnuts she used to buy at the bakery down the street and drinking Rootbeer floats together while watching Golden Girls (so many of my memories revolve around food!). Playing card and dice games...and pick-up sticks. Playing in her small yard right in the heart of Mishawaka.
I have come across this scent in my adult life...in a perfume and, more recently, in a Mary Kay lotion that I bought from Jessica.
Yes, scents do wonders in bringing on the memories. Thank you for letting me reminisce. Love you :-)
Oh yes.
I went on a manhunt last year around Christmas time, trying to find this children's scratch-and-sniff book that I remembered from my childhood. I didn't know the name of it (and right now I can't even remember it, lol... it's in Isaac's room and he's asleep), but I remembered that there was a page that smelled like a fir tree, and a page that smelled like peppermint. I remember sitting in my Grandma's living room scratching the pages of this book and smelling all of them with her (and when I asked her, she couldn't remember the book either. We're smart people, lemme tell ya). I found the book last year at Barnes and Noble. It was the last copy they had... I opened it and found those two pages, and was instantly 10 years old again. I can so vividly remember sitting on her couch, covered up with blankets, with the lights from the Christmas trees sparkling. Love it.
I think I'll take that book to her house this Christmas and let her read it to Isaac. :-)
Special smell
You never got to know your Grandpa Burke, but when I was growing up, he loved to smoke a pipe. His favorite tobacco was a special cherry blend. To this day, if I catch a whiff of that cherry blend smoke, it takes me straight back to sitting on my Dad's lap while he lit up his pipe and took that first drag. When out in the malls, sometimes there will be a Tobacco Shop and I always go inside hoping to catch a sniff of that smell.
Love you, honey.. Give those precious babies of yours a hug and a kiss from me and Uncle D.