Early Scent Memory

Both my parents are from large families. Almost all my aunts and uncles cook. Both my grandmothers were still living as I grew up and they were cooking queens as far as I'm concerned. My earliest memories of scents fall in the food category. More specifically the herbs and spices categories. Vanilla, cinnamon, clove, rosemary, etc., were commonly used. I still love the smell of clove and fresh rosemary today. I've had kind of a love-hate relationship with vanilla and cinnamon but we've come to a common ground lately. :)

What really stands out in my mind though is not of my earliest memory but of one I recall from my adolescent years. Many years ago during the Christmas season my mom would take my sister and me to Hudson's department store in downtown Detroit. At that time of year one of the upper floors was set up as a little shop for 'Children Only' to do their Christmas shopping. The parents would give their children money to buy small trinket-like gifts then wait outside this set up until the children finished shopping. This way the parents couldn't see their gifts ahead of time. :) This one particular year I bought my grandmother a green apple cologne. When I purchased it I thought it was the best scent on Earth. I was a kid, what did I know. I still laugh (and cringe) about it to this day. It was green in color and in a clear apple shaped atomizer. Grandmothers are sweet. They don't always tell you when you've given them shit they'd never ever use. When I gave it to her on Christmas she smiled, gave me a big hug and said "Thank you." I was so proud of myself. It never dawned on me that years later that bottle of cologne was still full, yet sitting proudly on my gram's dresser amongst her real cologne.