Common Scents
Just returned from the Wilco show, which was pretty much incredible, incidentally.
It is amazing how a scent can evoke memories and bring things or people to life. The girl to my left at the show wore the same perfume that an ex-girlfriend used to. I loved that fragrance and tonight was no different; I was secretly happy when it drifted from her to me.
The really surreal thing about scent-based memory is just what it does bring back from the dead -- none of the bad shit, only the good. Specifically, every time the fragrance caught flight, I smelled the spot on the ex where her neck meets her right shoulder, a fine place to bury one's face.
posted by DMo at 3:19 AM
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3 Comments:
Oh yes. Whenever I smell the cologne my first boyfriend wore, I'm 14 again and he's handing me a little plastic bag of his Billy Joel tapes for us to listen to later, in my room, which both thrilled and scared the hell out of me because I didn't want to make out and I was dying to make out, all at once. I think it was Polo, which would be about right since the year was 1984. And you're right, when I smell that smell I don't have the bad memories (breaking up on Valentine's Day, hearing he was hooking up with older sister's friend, the way he used to call me while he was watching golf and bore me with his dreams of being the youngest person to win the US Open). Only the sweet, good stuff. Yeahhhh.
11:09 AM
Memories of the summer after high school waft back to me with the smell of Cool Water. He was tall, blonde (not usually my type) and I'd rest my head on his chest and become intoxicated with this scent as we watched movies in the basement of his house. You're both right about only the good stuff. I don't think about how he broke up with me while I was at work, how he taunted me by visiting the restaurant with his new girlfriend, or how he turned his friends against me. Only the dark basement and the steady beat of his heart.
11:38 AM
Don't know why it posted as anonymous...but it's the high maintenance sarah.
11:40 AM
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