Quote:
Originally posted by robustpuppy
Smells -- the first whiff of fragrant vines - honeysuckle, or the one on my neighbor's fence that I can't think of the name of right now. Honeysuckle is an esp. strong indicator for me because the house on the corner by my elementary school bus stop had a huge honeysuckle, and I will forever associate that smell with the feeling of freedom that starts in early June, with half days of school, field days, and the sight of papers flying out of school buses. (Similarly, the smell of crayons and Elmer's Glue transport me to fall at any time of year.)
Also, of course, the smell of burning Kingsford.
ETA Coppertone.
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2. Except in NYC the smells are the smells of pee, oil, garbage ooze and general grime on the streets, released as the asphalt warms up. You can tell summer has come to NYC when the streets start to reek. And tar - I love the smell of tar when the road crews begin repairing the winter damage. And there are the smells eminating from the dank winter coats of my fellow subway riders who have not yet figured out it is warm and therefore dumped the outerwear they have been wearing continuously for 5 months.
From childhood, my "summer smell" memory is the smell of rain - I grew up in a place with pretty bad air pollution (no longer, but in the early '70s is was bad), and you could always smell the rain about 5 minutes before it hit because it carried all the air pollution down with it. Sometimes I smell the same thing in NYC, but not as often. Anyhow, to this day whenever I smell some spa-goo called "rain," I find it disorienting because it smells nothing like rain is supposed to.
However, I did get a whiff of Kingsford this weekend, when my upstairs neighbors lit up the hibachi on their fire escape (and spurted me with lighter fluid while I was sitting below on mine).
This all sounds rather dismal, but I actually love most of these smells (except for the rancid winter coat smell). But then I looove the smell of gasoline as well.
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