"I Go Back...."

Lately I've been thinking about how certain smells, sounds, or sights evoke strong memories. It's interesting. I don't know exactly how it works it's fascinating. For some reason I've been experiencing this quite a bit lately.

Things like....

*The smell of L'Oreal lipstick. I just bought a tube recently and as soon as I opened it the familiar scent hit me and transported me back in time...to 1988 and a San Francisco Bay dinner cruise with my best friend, her brother (who was my boyfriend at the time), and his best friend (who was my best friend's boyfriend). Fisherman's Wharf, the smell of the ocean, seagulls squawking, and the lights of the city reflecting off the water.

*Pipe tobacco. I caught just a brief scent of pipe tobacco the other day...and it transported me back to childhood summer visits to my Grandparents' home in Idaho and Grandpa smoking his pipe. The house always smelled of pipe tobacco. After he stopped smoking, the smell gradually went away and the house never seemed the same to me.

*Raspberries. Fresh raspberries also take me back to childhood visits to Idaho. Grandma and Grandpa had tons of raspberry bushes and we picked fresh berries each morning for breakfast. SO delicious. Grocery store raspberries aren't the same as fresh-picked-that-morning-covered with milk and sugar-eaten warm off the bush raspberries. Grandma's homemade raspberry jam tastes so much better than any Smuckers will ever make. When Grandpa's health declined the raspberry bushes disappeared. The backyard seems much smaller now.

*The smell of hospitals...and I'm back to Alyssa's stay in the NICU. It isn't a a happy memory, but it isn't a sad memory, either. It's just there, reminding me always how precious life is...monitors beeping and squealing nonstop, the tiniest babies I had ever seen, limited visiting hours, and just sitting there watching her lay in her isolette. And knowing, in a way I couldn't explain, that my baby was going to be just fine.

*Sunscreen...back to Lake Powell , Oahu, and Maui, many years ago. Relaxing in the sun, swimming, laying on the beach. Amazing trips...not a care in the world...just living in the moment and enjoying the amazing adventure that stretched before me.

*Fresh cut grass...back to Anchorage in our back yard on B's first birthday, with A playing on the swingset and B just sitting on the blanket, smiling and laughing and basking in all of the attention. Looking around and knowing that we would be leaving soon to move across the country, and wanting to soak in everything around me.

*Beets. My Dad and I are the only people in our family who like beets. One year my parents decided we would grow a garden and each child picked one thing to plant. I chose beets. Even though no one else liked them, they let me plant beets. Of course, planting them also meant actually taking care of them...hands in the dirt and all of that. Yuck. But every time I see beets, I think back to that summer night in Wyoming when we planted a row of beets just because *I* wanted to plant beets.

*80s music by The Jets and Stevie B....back to Senior Night at Disneyland with one of my best friends, flirting with all of the guys because our boyfriends weren't on the trip with us...dancing at the outdoor venues to concerts by The Jets and Stevie B...Mint Juleps and beignets...a sailor hat with "Princess" embroidered on it...falling asleep on the bus ride home...laughing so hard it hurt and riding the Matterhorn and Space Mountain until I thought I would be sick.

Simple things. And I go back.