Common Scents

 A while back, I wrote about certain smells that evoke memories, basing it on my sister's "favorite flavor" candle still brings her to my mind when I burn it.

Our daughter, Hannah, mentioned recently that she remembers when she'd come in from school and smell the Pine Sol scent from when I'd mop my floors and wash my kitchen cabinets.  She told me it brings back nice memories to her.  

Yesterday, after an afternoon with lots of physical outside play, our granddaughter, Ophelia, ran over when she saw Grandaddy and I were leaving.  After a big hug, I kissed her forehead and tasted that salty skin from hard play and the scent from that same play outside.  It brought back memories of Hannah when she was just that age...and I couldn't help but smile for the memories it provoked.  

Our daughter is 39 years old, busy being a wife and mom of three kids - eight, six, and one - and doing contract work as a graphic designer.  Someday, she'll be the one thinking of these things and it'll bring a smile to her face or a tear in her eye.  I likely will be dead and gone but I wonder if she'll think about those long-ago scents and tastes that will have her mind going back in time.

Mother's special use for Dove...

When I was 19, I began using Merle Norman skincare. I'm now 71 and still use it. Oh, I tried different products but always went back to MN. I took good care of my skin because of my mother. Hers was beautiful and very soft even to her old age. She washed it every day with her Dove Beauty Bar and used Oil of Olay. That was even in her later years! You'd have thought she had some complicated beauty regimen, but that was it. I wasn't going to take any chances so I decided I'd count on Mother's good genes and Merle Norman!

My mother used Dove for more than just her complexion. I remember how she’d wash my mouth out after using a word I should’ve known better than to use! I learned my lesson after getting a taste of her Dove Beauty Bar!

Years later, I reminded her about washing my mouth out with soap. She insisted she never did that!! I told her I remembered distinctly how awful it tasted. She’d wet a washcloth, rub it all over the soap, then proceed to wash the inside of my mouth with it! But she would still say she didn’t wash my mouth out with soap!  

The very last time I ever brought it up, she said, “I never washed your mouth out with soap! It was Dove…and that’s not soap!”

Remember...if you have a pulse, you have a purpose.

Yankee Candle Company...thank you!

The fall before Vangie went to Heaven, she found a “new favorite candle ‘flavor’ for us” and bought two so she could share with me. Called White Christmas, it's made by Yankee Candle.  I fell in love with it just as she did.  

That fall, while in Ohio, my sister and I went to the Yankee Candle outlet and stocked up on big and small ones because we were just that crazy over the scent!  

After Sissie died, I felt a little closer to her each time I’d burn them.  Pretty soon there was nothing left but a little wax in the jars.  I froze them so I could easily pop out what wax was left, then break them into pieces to use in a melting pot.  

And then all of it was gone.  Looking for it, a Yankee Candle associate told me the scent had been discontinued.  Still, I would check stores to see if one might be on a shelf somewhere.

On the way to our nephew's home in Indiana, I shopped at a Yankee Candle outlet on the off chance that maybe they had that scent I loved so much.  They didn't, but the store manager made a call finding three in stock at the factory!  I paid and they mailed them to me!  Made me so happy!!  Now those are all gone and all I had was a little circle of wax to break up into a melting pot once again.  

I told a sales clerk at my Yankee Candle store in Knoxville about that scent. She smiled and told me it was back and it’s only sold at Christmas time, of course…but she called a store in Sevierville and found some still in stock! 

That night after a no good, very bad day at the office, Joe took me out for dinner in Sevierville and we then went shopping for Vangie’s ‘favorite flavor’ candle!!  I bought several and right now, that scent is wafting through the room and I’m happy!

All that to tell you this...

As you can tell, certain things can invoke lots of memories and I'm so glad my sister gave me something lovely to remember her by among so many other things!  This month will mark eleven years since she went away.  

Still miss the girl. 💚

If you have a pulse, you have a purpose.  Make your life count!