I smell like campfire, and I like it. I wish I could go back in time and tell my 12 year old self that. See, we just got home from spending a beautiful (like, seriously beautiful!) October day at Vogel State Park — or as my kids call it, VogelTANZ State Park. We did nothing but sit around a campfire pit with friends, eat, and play in the creek and dirt. The campfire part was especially nice. You don’t realize you smell like campfire until you are away from it, so as we got home this evening and put the kids to bed I caught a wiff of myself and the first thing I thought was, “I smell like BACON”! Why? Because when I was 12 years old I spent a day, similar to this very day, hanging out with friends around a campfire. Then I headed to youth group at my church where a boy (who I happened to have a major crush on at the time) told me with a look of disgust on his face, “You smell like bacon!” I was of course crushed because no girl wants to smell like bacon! That, my friends, was my first memory of feeling completely insecure around a boy. Now 20 years later…yes, 20 years later, that memory was the first thing to come to mind when I smelled the campfire smoke on my skin tonight. It is amazing how words have so much power! Even (or especially?) words spoken by a zitty-faced 12 year old boy! So let’s give that old insecurity a good laugh and put it to rest! No, self, I don’t smell like bacon. I smell like a campfire — and I like it. It reminds me of the beautiful day I just had and brings back lots of memories of childhood summers sitting around the fire with my family and at camp. I just so happen to like smelling like a campfire!
Thanks for letting me “air out” (yes, pun intended!) that old memory, folks. I feel a little more free now that I have gotten that out in the open. š
Tell me I’m not the only one who has funny (random?!) memories like this? My brain full of them!!
the vogeltanz family 
No Emily you are not alone! It is amazing how smells can bring back the most intense memories. After a local restaurant had a fire the smell of it brought me back to the time my neighbors house burnt to the ground – one of the most unsettling days of my childhood. It was the first time I understood what it meant to be vulnerable. And words… oh the way words last. Yes, lets get it all out in the open. Lets figure out how to help our kids get it all out in the open before it spends 20 years wearing holes inside them. And yes lets all be free.
I love your blog! I’m a bio and adoptive ET mommy, too.
I completely agree. There is a term for hearing sounds and smelling familiar smells that make you remember the past, but I forget what it is. It is nice when it happens and brings to back to a special time for a minute.