Smells Can Trigger the Most Powerful Memories

Years ago I was sitting outside a restaurant and I smelled someone smoking a pipe. Instantly I got cold chills and remembered the smell clearly. My great-grandfather (whom I referred to as Papa Bear) smoked a pipe. I’ve never forgotten how strong that memory was or how hard it hit me. My aunt wrote a post today that reminded me of the power of smell.

By Mary Alice Yokley

The old “Flashbulb Memory” effect checked in today, big-time! (A memory of an event that affected several senses at once, and experiencing any of the elements can bring the original event to mind in great clarity…) When I got in my car to go home after lunch at my son’s house, it was super-hot, so I let the windows down a few inches to help the AC blow out the hot air…I drove past a group of trees where cattle gather in the hot part of the day, and tho it was completely empty, the pungent smell of cow manure, mixed with dirt and trampled grass wafted into my window and transported me to our old barn….

I remembered myself as a 13-year-old, standing in the lane of the barn, where the horses and mules were in the stalls to the left, chomping on shelled corn from the trough, and hay tossed into the racks from the loft above. To the right were the stalls where the milk cows waited for the evening ‘milking’. Their young calves would be sent to the ‘other side’, and we would “squat” on the right side of the cow and empty that side of the udder. If we were brave enough, we might sit on a stool, or an upside-down feed bucket, always realizing that she might ‘kick the bucket’ (or us!!) at any minute. She would constantly be switching her not-so-clean tail, and the calf would periodically ‘butt’ the cow’s udder, demanding “more, more, more!”

I could feel the heat of the cow’s body through her thick winter coat as I leaned against her for warmth on a cold morning….and hear her “snort” as she blew the ground corn feed mix as she ate. So there you have it…a Flashbulb Memory! Driving on down the lane, I came to the cattle enjoying their ‘noon meal’ and snapped this pic…it can capture a moment in time, but my memories can span a lifetime–a time when things moved more slowly, families shared meals, work, worship, and play together, and our country shared common ideals and goals.

Smells can trigger the most powerful memories and reminded me that….

You can take the girl out of the country, but the country never leaves the girl !!