What are you doing? Making a memory. Years from now, when I am all grown up, I will always remember my grandfather and how he smelled of…peppermint and pipe tobacco.”
Hayley Mills – Parent Trap 1961
The smell of charcoal on a hot summer day is an aroma that can stop me in my tracks. The smell of dew as it lingers in the fall mornings or fresh-cut pine gracing the family table warms me inside. The scent of a brand-new book leaves me charmed by its pages.
Smells are captivating. Stetson cologne triggers my senses and takes me back to my childhood, watching my dad sit in the living room in his pressed jeans, button-down shirt, boots, and cowboy hat, waiting for my mother to finish getting ready for their date night. Mom’s perfume and hairspray would linger in the hallway long after they were gone – I still can trace it, even after all these years.
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Like her sister, Charlotte wants to stop and smell all the flowers; no matter where we are, she wants to take in the fragrance. She will take a deep breath and say, “They smell so pretty!”
I could always find my sister sitting on the counter while our dad shaved. He would put some shaving cream on her face and use the dull end of the razor to wipe it off. She would laugh at his antics and run, telling Mom, “Look, I smell like daddy!”
I can still remember the smell of my Grandfather Ben when he would get off the plane from a business trip. If we were visiting, we would get to go to the airport with our grandmother and pick him up. This was back when you could walk to the gate and see the passengers unload from the plane. My Grandmother Shirley’s hair and perfume would be to perfection, and I could cling to the cleanliness she wore. I was so excited to see my grandfather Ben get off the plane. I exclaimed, “Wow, Grandfather Ben sure did bring a lot of people with him!” But the hug is lodged in my memory forever. The feel of his sweater against my cheek and the scent of his cologne enthralled my senses; the look of his business slacks and loafers was picture-perfect.
Helping our neighbors clear a tree that had fallen in their front yard, I stopped and saw sawdust blowing behind Chuck with every cut of his chainsaw. I whispered in Eva’s ear, “This is another smell that I just can’t let go of.” She gently responded, “I like it too, Mom.”
Chuck bought Eva and Charlotte perfume to wear last year, yet I find them in our bathroom cabinet, spraying Daddy’s cologne on themselves. I asked why, and Eva said, “Because we love how Daddy smells. We had to talk about men’s and women’s cologne, but I left the smells as an accessible trail to follow.
Before we moved away from Pierre, SD, a little girl named Shelby Robinson attended our church. She thought, Pastor Jim, as she called him, hung the moon. Her little heart was broken. A few months back, I reconnected with Shelby, and we talked about all the years in between for a while. As we were hanging up, she said, “Before you all moved away, I had your dad spray his cologne on a shirt of mine so that I could always remember his smell. I carried it everywhere until it was so tattered my mother had to put it in a shadow box. I keep it now to remind me of your family. Thank you for the impact you had on my life, even at five years old.”
Although the one leaving the scent does not realize its captivating powers, as the years go by, it will be fragrances we didn’t even know we were leaving that spellbound our children.
Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance. Ephesians 5:2
