Do You Smell That? (Part I)

The sense of smell has a "memory".

There are moments in life when a familiar scent can transport us back to a day...an event...a specific moment in time.

It has taken a long time for me to reach the point of telling my story of a very personal smell memory.  It's been in the forefront of my thoughts lately....so I think it must be time to write it down.

Rewind to Aug 4, 1957.  I was 3 3/4 years old - and spending the day with my family at the lake cabin in northern Minnesota.


I have vague visual memories of the place itself.

But - due to the life-altering event that happened that day - I have an intense olfactory recall of the smell of the fumes given off by those little putt-putt boat motors.

To this day - that smell is the trigger that transports me back to the saddest of summer days - when 20-month-old Stevie  managed to slip out of the cabin during the chaos that comes with meal preparation for a crowd.

In true toddler fashion - he followed his curiosity impulses to the dock...to the small fishing boat...to the moment of reaching over the side of the boat to touch the pretty water...

...and then our lives changed forever.

Later - I remember watching the world unfold from a bird's-eye-view - hoisted up high on my dad's shoulders.   (More than likely placed there to keep tabs on me.) 

I watched, I heard, I saw, I remember.  But it's still "the smell" that takes me back to that day.