A Simple Smell Can Take You Back In Time...

It happened so quickly, so casually and so unexpectedly that it caught me completely by surprise. I was walking up the street, rushing to an appointment, when I brushed past a pale green bush covered with white blossoms. My grandmother always called them mock orange bushes and I have no idea what the botanical name for them even is. One moment, I was an impatient adult headed off to yet another task that filled my day... and then suddenly, I was 12 again. The feel of the warm sunshine on my neck was the same, but if I closed my eyes, I could feel the handlebars of my shiny green bike beneath my hands as I crossed the bridge over the railway tracks to get to my swimming lessons, the arena or my grandmothers house. I lived again, for a moment trigged by the sweet perfume of those white blossoms, the anticipation of a summer stretching before me in freedom... that giddy sense of play that my kids now await with almost breathless anticipation, far more wonderful in the imagining than the reality will be a few weeks from now when I hear the lament “I’m bored! There’s nothing to do!”

I hurried off to my meeting, but on the way back to where I’d parked the van, I stood and sniffed the bush again. If I closed my eyes, I could still wrap my hands around those handlebars and regain that sense of anticipation of the summer about to arrive. I also had the overwhelming urge to dig into my pocket to see if I had enough allowance for a can of RC cola and a Jos Louis but luckily for my adult constitution, all of my change had been swallowed by the parking meter!