Our Nostalgic Smells

It happens to everyone. Once in a while we encounter a significant smell, and like a memory of a long lost moment, this smell enables some childhood memory to be replayed in our minds as if it were stored away in some basement storage room in our brains - ready for the smell to unlock it.

It may be the deodorant stick used in the boy's locker room in your 7th grade physical education class which triggers the sights and sounds of all things middle-school. Or perhaps it may be the smell of petrol which reminds you of the summers spent with a buddy practicing fixing motorcycles. A smell can capture long lost moments as if they were untouched and ready to be revisited. Indeed, simple airborne molecules cause this and thus it is no surprise that our sense of smell is a more accurate and longer lasting remembrance utility than our vision in terms of recollection of past events. Smell, therefore, is an important tool because they are long-lasting impressions directly linked to memory.

Great research has been done on this topic. Dr. Alan Hirsch, a neurologist, calls it "olfactory evoked recall," pertaining to our accurate recalling of childhood memories by odor. Smell molecules enter the nose. They stimulate the olfactory receptor cells under the eye which then generate a nerve impulse that travel to the brain. This region of the brain which deals with smell, the limbic system, then receives these impulses and generates what we often describe as a "flashback" or a long lost memory from childhood.

Recently, I experienced a powerful and enjoyable childhood memory. The smell was Ralph Lauren's original Polo fragrance for men. The time period was 1989 or 1990 when I was about seven years old. The place was Newport Beach, California. The setting was overlooking some white yachts on a small hilltop-esque viewpoint near the ocean.

Of course, when I was seven years of age standing there with my father and his Persian business partner, Sammy, overlooking the luxuriant yachts, it would probably not have been an exciting moment. It was merely another day in my seven year old life. It is only now that I hold in deep regard. It is only now when smell enables us as adults to recapture a moment from the past for which we cherish and idealize - even if it were a mundane or prosaic occurrence during that time. As adults, upon having a nostalgic smell trigger a vivid recollection regardless of how ordinary or mundane the memory may be, we idealize and transform it into a "good time" sensation because anything associated with childhood is often free of adulthood responsibilities, anxieties, and frustrations.

My recent Ralph Lauren "olfactory evoked recall" is a great example of this. I can remember in detail the white yachts below us as we were staring at the vast ocean in the afternoon sun as my father's friend Sammy had his arms raised pointing towards the ocean while describing something to my father. They were both wearing tight white nautical looking shorts with crew-cut white socks and stereotypical tennis shoes. Even more, I can precisely remember walking back to the car, a hatchback 1980s Japanese model vehicle parked on an inclining street much like San Francisco. The vehicle had a tape deck. The cassette being played was some sort of European/Middle-Eastern ballad compilation featuring French singer Joe Dassin, Italian singer Toto Cotugno, and Armenian/French singer Vatche. It is often the combination of the Ralph Lauren scent and the sounds of singer Vatche that puts me into the ultimate nostalgic mood - one that might even bring tears to my eyes for an unknown reason.

Smell is such a powerful thing because it is linked to our emotions. I feel that that time and place is now safely locked in my head, and like a DVD player, I can press play over and over again with the help of the Ralph Lauren scent and the retro international cassettes. It is amazing how our brains can store so much information from so long ago, regardless of its significance, and even more amazing how we can replay these moments by merely capturing molecules into our nose.

At last, I leave you with a quote from the 1980 Woody Allen classic, Stardust Memories:

"That aftershave. It just made my whole childhood come back with a sudden Proustian rush."

Woody says, "Yeah? That's 'cause I'm wearing Proustian Rush by Chanel."