According to Psychiatrists, odors are among the stronger memory retrievers. It would follow, then, that an odor would be percieved as pleasant or unpleasant depending on the memory invoked. In one particular case, it is for me.
According to Psychiatrists, odors are among the stronger memory retrievers. It would follow, then, that an odor would be percieved as pleasant or unpleasant depending on the memory invoked. In one particular case, it is for me.
One of the best evenings I can remember was when I was about 12 "vacationing" at my Dad's cousin's farm in E. Grandy, CT. Because I was a guest, I was allowed to stay up for a "corn party". The family and the farm hands gathered in the kitchen and on the stove was a huge kettle in which freshly
picked corn on the cob was simmering. There was joking and laughter and singing -- and all the corn you could eat, lathered in freshly-churned butter.
The windows were open and a summer breeze came in bearing the scent of flowers and all the other smells that are part and parcel of a farm -- including that of a too-close-by skunk.
To this day, whenever I smell a skunk, the odor itself may not be pleasant, but it always invokes the memory of a most pleasurable occasion ---
Helen Matcovich, 1990's
I love the Connecticut story! It reminds me of Aunt Frances' house, and the way the wood porch would smell in the evening -- as an adult I stayed at a hotel in the area with a wood porch, and it had the same smell. Brought back a lot of memories.
Liz Matcovich Garfinkel, 8/20/2002