Ooh, baby...you smell so good!

I’m no rhinologist, nor am I an otolaryngologist, but I’ve been thinking about noses for a few days now.

It all started over the weekend when a nasty nosebleed sent me to the ER. The trip may have been unnecessary if everything I had learned about stopping one wasn’t wrong. Better advice can be found here. (Did you know that cocaine sometimes figures into treatment of a nose bleed? I sure didn’t.)

Our sense of smell is one of our great family connectors. Think of the smells of your past, especially the good ones. Although one man’s odor may be another man’s fragrance, many of our memories are olfactory in nature.

I love the smell of freshly cut flowers, frying bacon, fresh baked bread and baby powder. I’m something of a throwback in that I burn incense in my office while my wife is partial to scented candles. That new car smell is now available in chemical form, but I haven’t sniffed a suitable substitute for a fresh-cut fir tree.

In college, Jade East, Hai Karate and English Leather were popular scents for guys, but I have to confess that I’m not much help when my wife asks me what I think about a women’s scent. I like almost all of them. (Did you know that our nostrils contain patches of erectile tissue and that our left nostril smells differently than our right?)

As a child, I used to love the aroma coming from my grandfather’s pipe. Although smoking-related cancer took him far too early, I later took up the habit myself. I could never understand why pipe smoke could smell so good while smoking one always left a bitter taste in my mouth. Although my smoke of preference was cigarettes, I gave it up while in the 20s and can’t stand the smell of any tobacco today.

Not all smells are pleasant, of course. When I spill gasoline on my hands, it seems to linger forever and a sniff of antifreeze brings the dread of a leaky radiator. Our state fair is a great state fair, with great and not-so-great smells. (Did you know that humans can distinguish some 10,000 different odor molecules?)

So, what are the memorable smells of your family’s past?

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo courtesy of snailbooty.