Return of Memoryfest - Day 19/31

[bironic]

19. Elementary School and earlier

There used to be a candy store in the mall across the street from our house, Dolce something. We just called it “the chocolate store.” I used to get jelly beans there -- the small, simple, fruity kind, before Jelly Belly came along -- or marzipan on special occasions, while my dad usually went for milk chocolate nonpareils, my sister inevitably chose the nonpareil lollipop (which she’d often break right off the stick as soon as she took a bite and it would fall on the floor) and my mom had jelly rings or chocolate-covered cherries.

The place was small, with just a narrow space to walk in between the counter and the two glass walls, and had a distinctive smell. I used to think it was just the scent of chocolate mixed with various other confections. Years later, when I was older and the store had been replaced with a luggage retailer, I'd encounter that scent in the oddest places -- bars and musty shops and I don’t even remember where else, and it always stumped me why they would smell like a confectioner’s shop. Finally I realized it wasn’t aromatic chocolate or candy I was smelling, it was cigarette smoke. Someone, or several someones, in that chocolate store must have smoked a lot. So now for me the scent of chocolate is bound up in whatever brand of cigarettes the nameless, faceless employees of “the chocolate store” used to enjoy, and vice versa.

Comments

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, smoke. I don't live very far from the Saratoga horse racing track, so in the summers I spend a fair amount of time there and I always have, as far back as I can remember. One summer when I was around 4-6 years old I was there with my Nan and Pop (my mother's parents) and we were sitting on the benches out in the open in front of the stands. I was chattering away with Nan and this old guy sitting near us thought I was pretty clever, I guess, and took a liking to me. Even though I stayed securely tucked against Nanny's side with her arm between me and the guy, he did manage to get me to talk to him by giving me his hat to wear. (It was a driving cap, which is still my favorite kind of hat.) He spent the entire afternoon teaching me how to handicap so I could pick horses to bet on. He also smoked cigars the whole time, and I really loved the smell. Now whenever I catch a whiff of cigar smoke, I think of the race track and for a while there's no other place I'd rather be.

[roga.livejournal.com]

A few years ago I stepped outside one winter night and was surrounded by an achingly familiar smell that sent me fifteen years back in time, which I couldn't recognize. I sat on a bench for fifteen minutes, racking my brain as to why the world suddenly smelled like California, and what was it about California that actually had a smell. I finally realized that it was a fireplace. Nobody I know around here even has a fireplace, it's not common practice at all, but... I guess someone did, and the last time I had smelled burning firewood in the air was in CA, 1993. I actually felt like I was eight again.

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

Oh... I have so many memories that could be mentioned here, but here's one that's uniquely about smoke:

When I was 15 I spent a year at a Danish sort of boarding school - which bears very little resemblance to British boarding schools and more to Hogwarts *G* There are only 9th and 10th graders there (our last two grades in the regular school system).
I had a friend there, Martin, who was a smart-ass but also a kind guy with a talent for comfort. He smoked a pipe and always wore a leather jacket. Now, one of the safest smells I know is the mix of leather and pipe-smoke. Very unique :-) (Also hard to replicate because I'm allergic to smoke *G*)

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

No memories associated with smells are popping into my head, but that's probably because smell is my weakest (almost absent) sense. Hmm...I wonder if I'm a victim of cadmium poisoning. :D

[bironic.livejournal.com]

tsk tsk. Got to watch that drug habit. :)

I think smell is the weakest sense for most people, but there are some scents that just throw you right back to some specific place or time, and this one's easiest to remember because of the "twist."

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

milk chocolate nonpareils

I've read about these in books before, but never bothered looking it up until just now. It always amused me, because I learned the word first in the context of 'unparalleled' and I always thought 'that has to be some amazing lolly'. But they're basically freckles, right? :)



We now conclude our regularly scheduled bout of randomness *g*.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Freckles, huh? Yes, they're like the picture there, although sometimes the crunchies on top are just white instead of multicolored, and the candies come in milk, dark and white chocolate.

I knew of the candy before the phrase it was based on, so when I came across the line "Thou art the nonpareil" in Macbeth (after a few years of French classes), I burst out laughing.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

LOL - "I am not a chocolate, I'm a human being!"

Ah - we only get ours in colours, although I think you can get the chocolate variations if you try. Maybe. Mostly milk though.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Consensus around here is that the milk chocoloate ones are the best. Color or not, the sprinkly bits taste the same. Just a matter of whether they turn your tongue white or splotchy.

Enjoy your weekend away!