It has now been over half a year since I’ve been inside my grandmother’s house. I visited her garden and said a socially distanced “Hello,” but it wasn’t the same. I missed the smell of her house. I used to stay there for a few nights every so often and I’d always come home smelling “of Granny’s house.” I wish there was a better word for it! I think it’s a combination of home cooking, dust and love.
— Aimee Ross of Inverness on a smell she would archive in her own smell museum. Read more in Welcome to Our Museum of Smells at The New York Times. Hat tip to Eschmeling!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Robin! I find it especially affecting when a smell/scent evokes a memory you didn’t really know you had – I think when I first smelled Chanel No.5 and paying attention to it, I remembered my grandmother’s vanity, which would wobble when you walked (or perhaps ran) by, the little bottles (not Chanel, I think only stuff like 4711 etc.) clinking and shaking precariously.
Agree…and I like the idea of a “scent archive”.
My grandparents’ house always had a very particular smell to it. It might have had something to do with the wool carpets. I’m not sure what it was, but i would pick it up the moment I stepped into their house. Once in a while I encounter a smell that is similar, and I am immediately transported back to their house.
Interesting! I have wool carpets and now I wonder if my house smells like your grandparents’ house. I never even thought of them as having a smell.
I don’t know if that was it, but they did have wool carpets, The smell of the house was always the same, for many years. It wasn’t a “foody” type smell, and it wasn’t a musty smell. I would notice it immediately whenever I first went into their house, but after being there a while I didn’t notice it any more. Olfactory fatigue, I suppose.