What The Nose Knows

What does home smell like to you? It’s a simple question, but the answer for any individual person can be as unique as a fingerprint.  It's said that smells create the most powerful memories. Have you ever just smelled something and you were instantly transported back to another time and place? For me, it's the smell of classroom supplies that makes me feel like a kindergartener again, simmering soup that reminds me of getting off the school bus and opening the front door, and warm buttered biscuit that carry me back to summers at my grandparent’s kitchen table. We all have smells we associate with people, places, or just moments in our lives.

While sounds, pictures, and touch can bring back memories of our childhood and youth, scientists have found that only the sense of smell can vividly and intensely bring back those memories. Because the sense of smell is the only sense to go directly to the brain’s area that actively processes smell. When you encounter a familiar smell, your body forms nerve connections that intertwine the smell with the emotions you feel at that time, especially if those emotions are heightened. That’s why smelling a certain meal may remind you of Sundays after church, or the scent of falling rain or fresh-cut grass might remind you of a fond road trip. If you’re apart from a loved one for extended periods of time, smelling their clothing or spritzing their cologne can make you feel close to them, even if you physically aren’t. And memory recollection through the senses seems to be strengthened during the holidays.

We’ve grown past our days of using No. 2 pencils, and you’re either typing away or writing with pens now, but that woodsy smell of freshly sharpened lead will always remind you of elementary school – those carefree days of not really having responsibilities. They’ll remind you of standing beside that barely held together sharpener stuck to the wall, desperately trying to get that perfect point. They’ll bring you back to a time when all you needed was a good pencil and a new notebook to feel ready to conquer the world. This is along with all the swimming lessons in the summer, birthday pool parties, laughing and fun in the sun with all of your friends – pruned skin and exhaustion from when your parents demanded you get out of the pool. Chlorine is hearing the ice-cream truck as you walked home with the towel looped around your neck, it’s the thrill of racing down the street to get that pushup creamsicle while your hair dries in the sun. It’s the smell of Southern wildflowers outside the church long after the sermon is over. After all, if honeysuckles don't come to mind when thinking of your childhood, did you even really grow up in the South? The sweet smell of honeysuckle floating through the rural air is as strong as a mother’s love, and, as always, it takes me back to my childhood in all the best possible ways. There are others that are just as beautiful to some, such as cabbage cooking, mothballs in the cedar closet, and whatever was the cheapest hairspray your mother could buy – usually Aquanet.

Whether it's the scent of the flowers, the aroma of your mother’s perfume, or the smell of sunscreen after summers filled with playing outside, everyone has a favorite childhood smell. For all of us, our nose is a time machine. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant pictures as sharp as photographs of scenes that have left the conscious mind. You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry and be sure to stop and smell the flowers along the way. Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the senses. Remember a nose that can see is worth two that sniff, so put yours to good use and take a trip down memory lane.