March 14, 2007

• Smells From My Past

  This morning I was thinking about my grandparents; in particular, I thought about my Grandpa Murche (paternal side) and my Grandma Poertner (maternal side).

  My nose must be very sensitive because it is part of what builds HUGE memories within me.

  I was thinking about my Grandpa Murche's work shed.  A VERY small, low ceiling room behind his garage.  It's where he repaired everything from tools to furniture, leather shoes to machinery.  He must have painted the building (either inside or out) with old-fashioned, oil based, enamel paint.  I assume that's the smell I remember.  When I sat on the cement porch steps outside of his shed and the afternoon sun beat down on the small, crooked little building, there was a very distinct odor that I remember to this day.  It was kind of sweet and kind of strong.  That was when I was little (maybe 12 years old and younger).  Years later when my first husband and I had an apartment within walking distance of my job, I walked home past a set of buildings that caught the hot, west sun each day.  "Grandpa Murche!" rang through my head.  Why?  After months of thinking, "Grandpa Murche!" each time I walked down that sidewalk, I realized it was the familiarity of the enamel paint on his old shed that I was remembering and what must have been on that set of buildings I passed each afternoon.

  Then, there's my Grandma Poertner.  She had a distinct scent in her bedroom and closet and she brought it with her when she flew out to visit us in California each year.  When she opened her suitcases, there was that wonderful aroma!  It was just "Grandma" and I couldn't put my finger on WHAT exactly I was smelling.  I asked her for years and years, from childhood and well up into my adult life, "WHAT do you use on your clothes?"  I wondered if there was a certain detergent?  Did she put an air freshener in her closet?  What?  What?  What?!!!   She laughed, thinking I was crazy, I'm sure, and was never able to tell me what I smelled.  She had no idea what I was talking about.  It drives me crazy to this day!  My Aunt Doris (her daughter) told me she wore "White Linen" cologne, but I've smelled that cologne in the department stores and that's NOT the scent.  I guess I'll never know for sure until the day I capture that familiar smell in my nose again and run to its source looking for the secret that's haunted me for years!

  I have lots of food smells that do the same thing to me, but I think we all do.  Roast leg of lamb with garlic cloves slipped into the meat - Mom Theurer.  Pork roast - Grandma Murche.  Beef stew in brown gravy - my real, birth mom. 

  So many other things awaken memories in me . . .

  Shoe polish - my white leather oxford shoes from grade school.  

  Pencils that have freshly sharpened leads - the many pencils I hand cranked at the sharpener at Parkside Elementary School.  

  Roses with a pungent sweetness - my Grandparents Murche's rose garden and my sister Nancy's front yard. 

  Damp, cool air with fog - my days growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area.

  My favorite smell of all:  Baby Magic.  All of my babies have been drenched in it.  When I mourn my babies growing up and leaving their little baby lives behind, I take out my own secret bottle of Baby Magic and use it on myself.  What a comfort!

   

   

  • 10:24 pm
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