Smelling memories?

I wasn't sure where to put this but it's weird. Sometimes when I think of a sad or very sentimental memory, a very strange smell comes with it. It almost smells like candles or roses. I'm not sure what it is. It's the kind of smell you might get a whiff of in the summer.

I use to have the opposite, a smell would be significant and it took a long time before I realized it must have been a scent my mother wore (she died when I was 3 and I don't consciously remember her). Is it a particular memory? I'd think about who else was involved and/or try to find a candle that smells like that (to get the name of the scent), etc. I'd think back on all my summer memories and factual stuff I knew to try to imagine where/location it could be coming from.

And the reverse, of course. I'm constantly amazed by the long forgotten memories that paticular smells dredge up.

I have no sense of smell. I often regret that I can't identify with this, but since I've never experienced it...it's not so sad!

Smells are memories. There is a smell right now I would give anything in the world to smell again...a loved one who is gone to heaven.

Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness, and cleanliness is godliness, and God is empty just like me - Smashing Pumpkins

"What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus tryin' to make his way home. like a holy rollin' stone. Nobody callin' on the phone, 'cept for the pope maybe in Rome...." -Joan Osborne

You know you're the second person to quote those lyrics as a response to my signature.

To me right now, my favorite smell in the world is the smell of my ex-boyfriend. I have one of his shirts that still smells like him. I love it. Every time I smell it and think of him, reminds me of good times and what we had.

Sometimes for no reason, a smell comes to me and I know it has a profound meaning for me, but I can not tell why. The scent is usually not common but pleasant. And some times I will actually smell something and know what it is, and it feels like it also has a memory attached to it that I can not place.

I think its called nostalgia. everytime i smell certain jiffy blueberry muffins i get a specific picture in my head from a childhood memory. love that kind of stuff.

Yes, the smell part of the brain and the memory part are associated! Now and then I smell a perfume, and I realize it was the same one my first year teacher used. Never knew the name of it!