Saturday, April 24, 2010

Someone Smells

Train Smells
Somewhere along the line I lost my olfactory sense.  Not completely, but pretty much.  The doctors don't know why, only that it sometimes happens after an illness, or accident, and can return spontaneously, or never.  I don't think about it much, unless I have a moment.  From time to time I smell stuff.  This usually occurs out of doors, on warm, humid days.  The smell of moist earth, or flowers, or rotting vegetation will trigger an immediate nostalgic moment.  It's so powerfully pleasant, that I'm almost paralyzed at the spot, and don't want to leave.

Sometimes, looking at a picture will trigger a brainal smell that's real. That happened this morning, while I was doing the Kodak moment post below.  The picture of the steam locomotives.

When we were little, my sister and me were bundled off in the summer to visit the grandparents in Indiana.  Mother would take us to Chicago's Grand Central Station, and walk us down into the cellar, where the tracks and trains were.  The dank smell of steel and oil infused steam, hissing from hoses that were attached to each car, are uniquely train station, and I experienced them again., along with the associated memories.  Took me on a whole mind  adventure.  MoSup can smell a mosquito fart, and that acuteness has its own drawbacks, as you may imagine.  Still, I wish I could, too.  Without sticking my nose right into stuff.
Boned Jello

8 comments:

The Old Man said...

Damn, Rog, this is scary.. The olfactory shut down about 35 years ago while I was working in a plant that used anhydrous ammonia. The lovely-and-talented Wife could scent-track a daffodil through a skunk factory. Kinda sucks when you can't smell your wife's oerfume, though.

vw - "stable"

Alear said...

Let's do some science, what say Rodg?

If a visual will trigger an olfactory, will an audio also?

Here's America's best composer Reich talking about trains.

Rodger the Real King of France said...

I tend to cotton to this her'n.

JMcD said...

Read a short story once in which one of the characters said that while riding a train he heard it say, over and over, "Hymie manooch, hymie manooch, hymie manooch" as it clattered on the tracks,and I've never gotten it out of my mind.

Anonymous said...

Vasser and Del McCoury. Hard to beat. I'll send you a video from around the house next time we get wound up.
Tim

Unknown said...

I've never known anyone else who had lost their sense of smell besides me and now I hear of two others.
Mine happened due to an accident in which I broke my neck 28 years ago.
About 5 or 6 times a year it returns but with a vengeance. So powerful I sometimes become nauseous. When I quit smoking two years ago the frequency increased but thankfully the volume, so to speak,has toned down.

Juice said...

The sounds of traveling train cars and smells of each station across W.Europe own a lull in my heart.
The smells of ocean beach and seaweed, cotton candy, taffy, caramel corn, and cigarettes of the Santa Cruz Boardwalk own a deeper place in my olfactory childhood memory of wonderful. Thanks for the walk down memory lanes. :]

Juice said...

Seconds after hitting the publish button I considered the deeper meaning to your post here, Rodger. The USA, as we remember and love her: Adrift down the River Nostalgia, of America the Beautiful.
God save us.

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