TOTD 091108: childhood scents

[Guest guest]

Question originally from Sophia:

Besides the usual sweet scents that attract one as a child, what

unusual scents do you remember with fondness from childhood?

_____

The only unusual scent I've loved all my life is the smell of NYC

subways coming up through the gratings on the street. That was my

MOST favorite smell from the time I was still being led around by the

hand to the time I was 18 and ready to flee the city. And I was the

only one I knew who loved that smell. I always made a point of

walking right on top of the gratings so I could smell it. My friends

thought I was crazy (my parents put up with it because they had no

choice).

It's the smell of 10,000 sweaty people all crammed in together, the

smell of 1000 perfumed ladies out for the night, the smell of the

trash and the rats and the grime. Impossible to describe. A dense

wall of animalic smells. I love it to this day.