...
They say summer's over. And I suppose it is.
I noticed this evening that there were no fireflies.
And while it's hot still, the water in the pool today somehow managed to have the slightest chill to it.
As I look back on the summer, I remember everything you remember about a summer. I've lived a a few summers now, so not a whole lot of it seems as new as it used to be.
But one thing I think about is the smell of my home.
It's something I noticed over the summer.
When you spend several days away from home, you return to find that you actually can smell exactly what it is your home smells like. That won't be happening now. Summer's over, and I won't be away from home long enough to notice.
It's kind of like when I went off to college and then realized how badly my Mom's apartment smelled of cigarette smoke because everybody smoked inside and how I went to school for all those years with my clothes smelling like that.
Except better.
Our home has a natural, wooden kind of smell to it. With a little hint of something that I can't quite express.
(It's difficult with smell. It's one of the senses that you can't recreate for someone else in secondary form. You can't record it for posterity. Simple memory won't do. You have to have the original).
It's a pleasant smell. I'm happy to know that when people come into my home that it's that smell that leaves them with the impression that we all get when we first enter a home.
It reflects what I would want people to think about my home.
The thing I don't think I'll ever know is whether my clothes smell like that.
I suppose I'd have to go without clothes for a while to know.
But it'd be nice if they did.
10 comments:
You know, I don't think I've ever noticed the smell of own house. My grandparents, though, I can remember like yesterday.
Your clothes smell.
Exactly like your home, that is.
No way around it. From what you've said here, that ain't half-bad.
all primary schools have exactly the same smell...and retirement homes come to that, and i'm not just talking about the smell of piss and pooh
My wife and I finally learned about how bad are clothes, and our home smelled from using tobacco products. What a disgusting habit! But for some strange reason the house smells like glue a lot lately...
It probably reeks of sweet e-musk...
... and you would like that smell, you freakin' egotist!
My house smells like cat puke a lot. How does that make you feel?
I still remember the smell of my last house. It was so good. I would always take a huge sniff when I came home on the chance that I might catch it. This new house just smells old. No matter what I do. Such a bummer!
david ... i can smell my grandmother's house, too. hers isn't like this, but i heard the thing that makes old people's houses smell like old people's houses is because of the moth balls that they use.
melissa ... i think you're right. i really do.
dan ... i've talked about that before to people. i love the smell of elementary schools. something a bit moldy. i guess some cocktail of smelly kids and glue and cafeteria food. when my wife started teaching, it had been 15 or so years since i had been in elementary school, but i was taken right back.
corky ... that's an improvement. seriously.
rusty ... well one thing i don't smell like is cologne. i don't trust most people who wear a noticeable amount of cologne.
cindy ... it makes me feel even more like i hate cats. my mom had five, six, seven at a time, and my chores as a kid always involved cleaning up after those disloyal, psychotic bastards.
tink ... i wonder if there's a way you can make it your own? and how long would that take to develop your own smell?
I don't know WHERE the summer went, August especially flew by.
I remember being really excited when I read years ago that someone was on the verge of inventing a smell recorder. I was excited for exactly this reason.
Not sure whatever happened to that invention.
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