Thursday, July 24, 2008

Ahh, the Smells of Summer

By Jennifer Huard
Of the Journal
      Don't you just love the monsoon season? Every summer afternoon we watch the clouds roll in, hoping the storm will be a direct hit and not another near miss. I love the rolling sounds of the echoing thunder and the fresh scent of rain and wet cement.
    I was pulling into the parking lot of my local sign shop the other day to pick up an order for a client when the clouds broke and the rain came down in humongous drops. Of course, I had to run as fast as I could in between the drops because sugar melts in the rain, and I blew in through the front door with the storm breeze.
    "Oh, I love that smell," said Richele, my favorite manager.
    "What?" I asked. "Wet cement?"
    "Well, no, it's the smell of summer rain," she said, seeing a distinct difference between the two. "They will never be able to bottle that, but if they could, someone would make a fortune," she continued, deeply inhaling the suddenly cooler, humid air as if a doctor were holding a stethoscope to her chest.
    How many times do you encounter a smell or fragrance that triggers a strong memory for you? A virtual time machine, it usually evokes something sentimental or nostalgic, like cotton candy at the carnival or a familiar perfume that makes you remember someone and/or someplace in time. What scents remind you of summer or the beach? And why? Are your summer memories made of a sea spray and dune grass scent, or of a boardwalk and coconut oil aroma?
    Fragrance companies know people long to capture the essence of warm weather and outdoor fun and offer myriad scents that are supposedly reminiscent of a summer beach: Dolly Girl on the Beach, Calvin Klein's Escape or Brezza di Mare, depending whether you are yearning for the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean or the Adriatic Sea. Some fragrances are able to capture a summer mystique that we all enjoy and relish, regardless of what beach we're on. We associate particular scents with scenes from our lives, forever frozen in time.
    I will always associate Diorella by Christian Dior with my mother and the summer of 1975. Besides the fact that she wore it every single day that summer, more important is the fact that it was the first time she wasn't wearing her trademark Shalimar.
    Mennen Speed Stick deodorant for men takes me right back to Grandad arriving at our summer cottage with his arms full of fresh corn on the cob, peaches and plums in brown paper bags he had just purchased from the roadside produce stand on the highway. Not to mention his anticipated instructions to take the corn outside and shuck the 14 ears for dinner.
    Sounds play a big part of summer as well. Maybe it's because our windows are open and we are outside more often. The never-to-be-seen-only-to-be-heard cicadas in the evening are a lifelong sound of summer I cherish every year. Thunderstorms are another of my favorite summer sounds. How can thunder, a horrendously frightening sound as a child, evoke warm feelings and memories when you become an adult? I guess it is the memory that the whole family was safe inside the house together, and knowing Grandma was in the next room waiting for her terrified granddaughter to run and crawl into bed with her.
    Enjoy summer's scents and sounds now, because it won't be too long before the sound you'll be hearing will be the hum of your furnace coming on in the morning and the smell of a Thanksgiving turkey in your oven.
    Quote of the Week: "Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory." – Susan B. Anthony
    Jennifer Huard's column appears each Thursday. She welcomes your e-mails at jhuard@abqjournal.com.>   

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