Memory Triggers

They say the sense of smell is the sense that is most closely linked with memories. I can attest to that. If I smell chlorine I immediately think of the pool at my aunt and uncle's house. The exhaust from the leaf blowers that they use around here makes me think of my dad cutting firewood since the exhaust from his chainsaw smells exactly the same. Today, though, I realized that sometimes this works on a more subconscious level as well. I have recently had a number of strange dreams that involve my ex and I couldn't figure out why. I have only seen him once in the nearly three years since we've broken up (has it really been only three years? It seems like so much longer). I don't really ever think about him. So why the dreams? Well, today I figured it out. A guy walked into my office today to ask for something and the smell emanating from him just hit me. I thought, "Wow. You need to lay off the Pacific Breeze Old Spice, dude." Then I realized that he was why I had been having those dreams. The ex wore Pacific Breeze scented Old Spice. I must have been bumping into this guy in the stairwell or the hallway just long enough to trigger some memory that would jump to my dreams. (By the way, I don't want you to think I'm some kind of weirdo who goes around sniffing men's deodorant products. I can only tell you exactly what that scent was because the ex wore it. I can also tell you what original scented Old Spice smells like since my father, grandfather, and step-grandfather wear it.)

I was telling this story to a friend of mine at work and she started telling me about this guy that she worked next to in grad school. She couldn't figure out why she was so attracted to him until one day she realized that he wore the same type of cologne as a guy that she dated in college. I laughed and told her about this guy that I had a crush on in high school. I started babysitting for a professor in college and her husband wore the same cologne. I was never actually attracted to her husband, but when he would walk by my thoughts were always "mmmmm.... that Curve smells good on you" (no, I never said it out loud). My friend was like "oh my gosh! That's what those guys wore!" So we decided that there is just something about Curve.

What about you? Is there a smell that just takes you back to days passed or reminds you of someone?