1 post tagged “gasoline”

What's the strongest association you have between a scent and a memory?

I have a strong association with the smell of gasoline.  At age four I opened up the gas tank of a van on a hot day and got a face full of fuel.  In spite of this I actually really like the smell of gasoline and atop this childhood memory have a palimpsest of further gas memories, and the strong, comforting association with always being the passenger in automobiles and never the driver.  I've probably only even pumped gas once or twice in my life.

The strongest direct memory associations come from stuff I don't encounter too much - some psychoactive chemicals, food of my youth, the weird smells of dentist offices or hospitals, particular perfumes... encounters that manage to be simultaneously novel and deeply familiar like deja vu.

In cupping coffee I've discovered that I have a pretty good long term sense memory. I can recall the smell and taste of a coffee long after it was first encountered.   The harder part is parsing that flavor into some rational, descriptive components rather than just a gestalt.  Trying to apply a rich vocabulary to something that hits deep in the lizard part of the brain is a tricky game.