The Smell of Memories

Every two weeks Bloggers unite for a day to write about a communal topic. This week LetsBlogOff asks the question what smell takes you back?

If the wind is just right there are days, when walking the streets of Tampa, I get a whiff of ocean air.  My mind immediately pulls up memories of weekends, while in high schoo,l spent at the beach in Lake Worth with my friends playing football, frisbee and checking out the cute guys.  Fun times, simpler times. 

Someone in my neighborhood must walk frequently past my house while smoking.  While I never see them I will be in my house, smell the cigarette smoke and immediately think my mom must be near.  Not the most pleasant smell but my mom smoked and that is what I remember.   Sometimes it makes me cry and other times smile.  I always remember having to clean out the ashtrays.  Yuck!

I live in the Sunshine State and oranges are big business.  I have a tree in my backyard.  The orange blossom smell is delightful however there is another orange smell that immediately makes me gag.  When I was a kid I refused to swallow pills so I was a challenge to the doctor & my mother whenever I was sick.  One time the doctor gave my mother a medicine in liquid form - orange tasting.  It ended up on my mother's shoes most times.  I was walking through a mall one time and that exact smell came over me and it took everything in my power not to vomit right then and there!

Cinnamon - ah a lovely smell!  My mom baked and I was always given a small amount of dough to make whatever I wanted with.  No matter what I made - gingerbread man, a star cookie, a roadrunner (loved the cartoon) I had to put cinnamon on top.  

What smell today will make a memory tomorrow?

Please check out my fellow participants of Lets Blog Off and read what smell means to them!

A Few of My Favorite Things

I don't know if it is the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 or just a spurt but I have been doing a lot of de-cluttering.  Going through my drawers, cabinets and closets to make a conscience choice to keep or not an item.

There are a few items that I will never get rid of because of their sentimental value to me.  I thought I would share them with you . If you have some of those same cherished items in your house please share in the comment section below.

Great Aunt Nola

My mom's mother had two sister who I never knew well but loved their names:  Mazie and Nola.  In their later years they lived together and I would chat with them from time to time.  I don't know how it came about but at some point Aunt Nola offered to make me an afghan if I would pay for the materials.  I sent a check and several months later I received a beautiful afghan in the mail.  I don't have a lot of items that have been handed down generation after generation but I cherish this afghan and every winter it goes on the foot of my bed.

Merilyn and Marcia

 My mother-in-law was an amazing woman and I was so blessed to have had her in my life. She was a knitter and decided to make each of her daughter-in-law's a beautiful throw.  She finished my sister-in-law's and had started mine when she was diagnosed with lung cancer.  She worked on it on and off over the next year but died before she could finish it.  I didn't know much of this until the Christmas after she had died.  It was naturally a tough Christmas but when I opened that box and heard the story that her sister took the throw and completed it I just cried.  Anytime I am sick or sad I wrap this throw around me and feel both their hearts and arms around me.

This crazy item is a candle holder.  My mom would make them for the church bazaar. She would save the tops of spray cans, baking soda cans & jars and turn them into candle holders.  I love it because she made it.

What is in your home?