I Smell a Memory

I never cease to be amazed at the power of smells to transport me to another place or time.  I suspect this is an experience not particular to me. 

Some days when I walk out of doors, the smell of the air carries me immediately to the top of Lookout Mountain where I am throwing a football with my college buddies.  Other smells take me back to my grandmother's home, or my first apartment, or to the days of Grant's infancy. 

On my walk today, I passed a grove of honeysuckle and immediately found myself wandering through the woods in Dexter, Missouri, as an 8-year-old tomboy - swinging from vines, inching my way across fallen logs, climbing trees, building forts, hunting with my Daddy, eating my first persimmon and sucking the nectar from the honeysuckle which grew wild and rampant there.  I was able to experience that sense of wonder and adventure again...all because a smell subconsciously left its imprint on my memory.