A few weeks ago, Kari posted a link to a site called Prompt Monster, and I spent some time clicking on the button that provides you with a new topic. Most of the topics were far too introspective and serious for me; I am avoiding serious and introspection lately. But one of the topics was “Make a list of your favorite smells.”
This reminded me of a conversation Carla and I had in the car. I adore driving her to school in the mornings because she is bright and cheerful at that time of day, while I am still quite blurry and slow, and she comes up with the most delightful topics.
Recently, her question was, “What smells do you love that most people would find gross?”
(Carla enjoys the smell of gasoline and the smell of “farms.” Do you think those smells are gross or unpleasant? Are there smells you love that you think most people won’t?)
For the most part, I think my favorite smells are probably right up there with a lot of people’s favorite smells (you’ll have to tell me if I’m right): rain on warm summer pavement, freshly mown grass, woodfires burning in strangers’ hearths, the top of a baby’s head, clean laundry through a dryer vent, cookies baking, burgers cooking on a backyard grill.
But I do have a couple of favorite smells that I think some people might find objectionable. The first is bleach. I love a good, strong bleach scent. It smells so clean and speaks to me of purposefulness, of resetting, of fresh starts and industriousness.
Perhaps you are thinking, “Bleach is not so unpleasant.” Well. Wait until you hear my other choice.
I love the smell of horse manure.
When I was a kid, I was lucky in so many ways – it takes my breath away to think of it. One of the immense gifts of my life was that I lived on hundreds of acres of rolling hills and open prairie. My dad, who always dreamed of being a rancher, built a barn and a stable on this land, and put up a fence around the acreage. Then, when I was seven, we got a horse; he was a gift from my dad’s business partner. This business partner owned many horses and sometimes a few of them would come out to our house to convalesce, or perhaps they simply needed a break from the hustle and bustle of being around too many other equine neighbors, or maybe they were causing trouble and needed a time out, I don’t know, I never got a straight answer from a single one of them. We never had more than four horses at a time; typically there were two or three.
One of my chores was to muck out the barn. This involved shoveling manure out of the stalls and into a wheelbarrow that I’d trundle over to the shelter belt and use to fertilize the trees. After I removed the bulk of the manure, I’d sweep the barn floor free of hay and dust and then sometimes rinse it out with a hose for good measure.
Like any kid, I resisted doing my chores. But my memory is that I enjoyed this particular chore immensely when I got around to it. Shoveling and sweeping and pushing a wheelbarrow are hard, physical, deeply satisfying work. I loved the mixed scent of grass and dirt and horse sweat, and, yes, the earthy mouldering smell of the manure. I loved the sound of hooves on the stable yard, the whisper of manes and tails flicking at flies, the horses’ soft nickering questions about whether I might have some oats or alfalfa pellets for them to snack on while I tidied their house. I loved cranking up the country station on the barn radio and singing along to Reba McEntire and Garth Brooks and Tanya Tucker et al at the top of my lungs, the horses swiveling their ears to listen. I loved when my horse stuck his head into the barn, to see if I’d finished the housekeeping yet, the nudges he’d give me, the velvet of the skin between his nostrils. I loved looking in at the freshly swept floor, the worn planks clean and strong, watching the horses clomp inside to inspect my handiwork. I loved filling their troughs with hay, rubbing their warm necks, and heading back to the house, dirt streaked on my bare arms, my ponytail in disarray, my shoulders sore, my heart light.
Of course, I’m no longer describing a smell. That’s the thing about scent, right? It’s almost inextricable from experience. Scents trigger memory so easily, and the feelings those memories contain. Some scents, some memories are so distinct and distinctive that they get wrapped up in one another until you can no longer separate them.
The smell of horse manure – which is really only digested grass and hay, nothing offensive, nothing remarkable – is woven into my memories of a happy, carefree childhood: dust drifting in shafts of sunlight; my horse’s lashes grazing the tops of his cheek as he blinked; the satisfaction of doing work that was just difficult enough to callus my palms and strain my back; the limitless possibilities of the moments beyond this simple, achievable responsibility; the limitless sky with its arms flung wide.
I agree with Carla about the smell of gasoline. The quick burst of it makes think of my dad, going on family trips, learning to drive. Not that I want the smell to surround me all the time, but the short exposure is fine. I like lilacs in the breeze outside, but I wouldn’t like it inside or as a perfume. Freshly turned soil is a good, promising scent, full of potential.
Well you need to come and visit me, because the greenway where Rex and I walk most days is also visited by horses, and there is OFTEN a heavy waft of horse manure. Honestly, I don’t mind it. It’s not my favourite but it’s not like dog shit. That’s a horrible smell. But I love your sense memory about manure. Horsies! They are amazing creatures.
There is a smell that gives me such a sense memory about childhood, I used to associate it with summer road trips on the prairies. It is a sweet, almost hay scent. I don’t know exactly what it is but sometimes I get it here too, so it’s not a prairie scent. It’s some kind of plant, but what kind, I don’t know.
Last month I reread What Alice Forgot and I loved that it was a scent memory that brought back her memory. (SPOILER) (the book is like 15 years old, but spoiler alert anyway?)
You are right – scent = memory. Reading about both gasoline and manure took me right back to my childhood. No I don’t seek either of these scents out, but the smell of gasoline reminds me of being in the back seat of my parents car on one of our epic roads trips. When I smell manure, I get a brief flashback to driving outside of city limits as a kiddo.
In short, I went places while reading this post!
What a beautiful memory you evoke here! Reading it, I felt like I was there.
Interestingly, while I don’t like the smell of gasoline now, I remember liking it when I was a kid. I wonder why?
A possible reason about the smell of gasoline is our unleaded gas smells different than the leaded did. I loved the old smell when I was growing up.
It is amazing how a certain scent can bring back a whole story! I actually think a lot of people like the scent of horse manure. And of just horse in general. I can’t say I love the scent of cow manure, the cows themselves have a certain sweet smell that I do like. I also love the smell of the bags of grain that we sold at the feed store when we had it. One smell that I really dislike is the scent of burning popcorn. There are several businesses in my area that sell or offer free popcorn. It seems like it always is getting burned!
It is amazing how a scent can take us back in time.
A “happy, carefree childhood.” I think any scents that can bring back those memories are favorites (for those of us who were lucky to have a childhood like that.) I had to think back to my childhood, and the smell of chlorine and suntan lotion reminds me of summer afternoons at the pool.
At first I couldn’t really think of what horse manure smells like, but then I remembered the year or so that my daughter took horseback riding lessons, and I spent some time around the horse stalls then. Yes, it’s not my favorite smell in the world, but it’s not bad and I can see how it would evoke vivid memories for you!
Lovely memory.
When I was a kid my dad owned a few race horses and sometimes we’d go visit the farm in Virginia where they lived. I remember liking the smell of the barns where the horses (and one goat) lived. And my sister liked the smell of gas stations when she was little. I don’t know if she still does.
Of course, my favorite smell is the ocean. Chocolate and coffee are pretty good, too, though.
I love this post so much. First of all, I love the smell of gasoline and bleach—not so much manure, but I totally understand your memory and reasoning. Ella rode horses from fourth grade until just last year, and she would agree with you. She’d still be riding if we could find a barn we like… long story.
I also love all of your favorite smells. I even have a note in my phone of the smells I love. I wrote a post a long time ago about my favorite scents.
When I saw your post titled Scent Memory, it made me think of my dad. There’s a scent the house had when he was in hospice, and I smell it at my mom’s house all the time in the room where he died. I smelled it at my house a few months ago for the first time, and my brother just smelled it at his house last week. 💜
Okay, I am loving this.
Scents I like:
New York City
airplane fuel (different from gas)
lilac bush
old books
new books
freshly cut grass (and then I can’t stop sneezing)
Orchid by T Ford
Murphy’s oil cleaner for floors
Fabuloso cleaner
New bills
fresh paint
Scent memory is one of those things that’ll catch me unaware. I remember the scent of gasoline as a child, not for the mower but for the car knowing we were going on an adventure. I remember many women by the perfumes they wore. If I smell Channel No. 5, I think off my stylish aunt. Clinique Aromatics is my mother.
So fun to learn about your childhood chore that is so unique and amazing thanks to horses on your property. I LOVED horses growing up. Heart eyes at the vision of you mucking out the stalls.
I remember when spring weather hit our area when I was in 2nd grade (ish?). I got off the school bus, and went up to my room to change. My mom had all the windows open. The curtains were blowing in the breeze and everything smelled clean and fresh. I remember flopping on my bed and soaking it all in.
Scent memory is so vivid, isn’t it? I love the smell of fresh cut grass and vanilla – but it’s got to smell like vanilla; not chemically scented vanilla. I can almost remember the smell of my grandparents house; I haven’t smelled that particular smell in years but I’d know it in an instant if I smelled it.
I totally understand why scent is supposed to be the sense that is the most vividly linked to memory, although I know some people don’t have a very strong sense of smell (my husband is one of them) and I wonder how that affects this.
I agree about the smell of horse manure, although I don’t enjoy the smell of horse on people after they’ve been at a barn. I like the smell of gasoline and fresh paint – I liked it to a damaging point when I was pregnant with Eve, which I later learned was indicative of severe anemia, but that’s a whole other story.
I love the smell of rain, and the smell of fresh snow, and tea roses and anything salty – I have a sea salt soap that makes the bathroom smell deliriously wonderful. I don’t like the smell of chlorine after swimming, and my best friend does – she’ll actually go to bed without showering which makes me kind of shudder. But I do like the smell of bleach, so maybe that’s weird?
I love the smell of mown grass, but I know people who hate it because it sets off their hay fever (I am also allergic but I still love it).
I only had to walk Eve to the bottom of the street and wait for the bus with her, but I loved that time also – she was so weird and funny and energetic.
I loved reading about your care of the horses.
My favorite smell has got to be this: You put the turkey in the oven. The other cooking-in-advance tasks are done. Then at some point you and all the visitors, who are your family (and you all get along with each other), go outside for a long walk. Then you come back from your walk, invigorated from being in the outdoor chill. When you open the door to the house, the delectable smell of the roasting turkey hits you. It permeates the house. It speaks of the delightful meal to come with the family.
I like the smell of coffee, but can’t stand the taste of it.
Penzey’s cinnamon smells like freedom.
Oh my goodness, Suzanne. Scent is SUCH a big deal for me. What a lovely post that so perfectly captures what a role scent can play in emotion and memory.
I love:
I’ll admit I loathe the smell of bleach – I think mostly because bleach terrifies me. I’m always scared I’m going to mess something up when I use it. I do like the smell of PineSol/Mr. Clean, though, and Method Pink Grapefruit cleaner is divine.
Yes, scents do evoke so many memories. I didn’t work with horses but as poop goes, their manure is earthy without being stinky.
I love this! Scent memories are so powerful and this brought back memories of my parents. My mother loved the smell of manure. She was a city girl and my dad grew up on a farm. Her sister married his childhood friend and they took my mom up to the farm on weekends. The men would still be working in the fields when the girls arrived. My mom said when the men (her man) came into the “back kitchen” and hung up their overalls they brought the sweet smell of manure with them. My mom always associated that smell with their early courtship days.
What a beautiful post! Can we be best friends, and can I go back in time and come over every day to help you with your chores (we’d be the same age in this fantasy) and just pet them and love them? Thank you!
When I was in Junior High School, my friend and I used to walk to a local horse stables where you could rent horses and ride along the canal trail. We would clean out stalls in exchange for getting to ride the old broken down horses. I loved it. The smell was mostly sweet, but when it got above 100F outside, it was too much and we would have to go home.
The smell I like that most people don’t is hot tar. When I was a kid and we lived in Alaska, we lived for a bit with some friends of my moms whom I worshiped, and the husband was a roofer. A whiff of hot tar brings that time back to me, and happy memories. I mean, I don’t want to smell it all day, but that little whiff is really nice.
When I was in 5th grade and we lived in San Jose, I had a friend whose family immigrated from Czechoslovakia, and her mom used to make some really delicious bread bread that had the most amazing smell. I’ve never smelled it since, but I can conjure it in my mind. I think this is a smell everyone would love though, so not one to answer Carla’s question.
I was waiting for the details that the smell of horse manure was associated with for you. I loved how you described your childhood and how horse manure reminds you of a magical time!
You forgot the smell of freshly brewed coffee, btw 😉
We don’t have horses but our neighbors have quite a few and once in a while(after a good rain or when the wind blows in our direction)we get a whiff of that horsey smell and I love it!
I love this! What a beautiful scent memory, and I love that it’s something most people wouldn’t understand. But those that do, do! My favorite weird scent… I love stinky dog breath. My dog Dutch had the WORST but I couldn’t get enough of it. There was something comforting about it to me. My mom’s dogs, Chip and Lucy, aren’t as bad as Dutch’s was but I still love the smell. HA.
Awww that is so sweet, Stephany!
Suzanne, this is beautiful. I was there with you – you painted such a vivid picture with your words. This just makes me more excited to read your book when you finish it!
I also love the scent of manure – it’s a clean smell! – petrichor (the smell of warm rain on summer sidewalks), warm grass in the sun, vinegar, gasoline, bleach, and my parents’ house (particularly around the holidays). The ocean is up there, too. Smells I dislike? Hm. I will have to ponder that… 🙂