Rodney

Is there any smell that you enjoy that other people normally gag at? I've heard that smell is a powerful evoker of memory, more than any of the other senses; so that a particular smell can instantly bring back a vivid memory of some other time that you smelled that smell.

I think that this accounts, in part, for liking the smell of certain things that smell bad to other people. Here's my list:

Crude oil: My dad worked maintenance at a nearby oil refinery for years, and he came home covered with it every night. And when the wind blew the wrong way, the whole town smelled like crude. So I always take a lungful whenever I drive by a refinery; reminds me of the good old days.

Cowshit: My junior high school was across the street from a dairy farm. On warm days, you couldn't smell anything else. And Dad, an old school farmboy, fertilized the plants around our suburban tract home with manure. We had flies on the lawn. The other kids used to tease me about it, and all I could do was shrug. It was true. Again, it's an association with the good old days.

Marigolds. Talk about strong. But our yard was full of them. I'll take a deep whiff even today.

Skunk. No excuse for this; but I don't mind the smell at all. My wife thinks that an early life full of the smell of crude oil and cowshit burned out my nostrils. But as long as the skunk doesn't spray on me, I think the smell is strong but okay.

What about you? Are there any "stinky" odors that you like because of good associations, or just because?