Thursday, November 30, 2006

Olfactory hits.

We were walking the dogs this morning and there on the breeze was the aroma of frying bacon and eggs. Instantly I was back at Fort Bragg, 37 years ago, on my way to the mess hall in the dark. Amazing how that happens. The same thing with deisel fumes. I catch the back end of a bus and do I think of all that exhaust I inhaled in New York? No, I think of working in the jungle, downwind of a noisy generator.

It's such a powerful trigger that I try to work in smells when I write (insert stinking prose joke here) as well as sights and sounds.
How about you? Any smells that instantly take you back to some place else, some place years ago?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Diesel takes me to the Caribbean. Palm trees, hot sun, nice breeze if I'm lucky, carefree more or less, looking for a Becks ... .

Daniel Hatadi said...

Perfumes do it every time. Each one I relate to a particular woman and time in my life.