Eau De Cochon

I was a travelin’ woman last week. One morning I went for a walk in my sister’s neighborhood. The air smelled like Eau’ de  Cochon. Sounds really pretty, but it is French for the smell of pig shit! My sister has some porcine domiciles (pig barns) on their farm , which house some 4000 pigs when they are fully occupied. The air on that morning was more like a hint of pig so I actually found it comforting,  it was a smell from my childhood. The rub is, of course,  the excrement has to be hauled away and spread on the fields at some point.  Luckily, this is not a  weekly task. OMG, the smell  the next night was awful, burning and nauseating. The short run from the car to the house almost required a gas mask. The smell of money as Iowans say. If you survive it to collect your money! 

Did you know that smell is one of our most powerful senses and has a direct connection to the brain? Smells ignite powerful memories and influence our mood and behaviors.  My poor mother got a bottle of Evening in Paris every year for Christmas, because when we were kids that’s the only perfume Wessels Variety store stocked. Our Christmas shopping venues were very limited. It is featured in the American Museum of History so check it out. It was discontinued in 1969,  but I wish I had the bottle which was  a beautiful dark blue. I could find a place to display it in my home. Moms’ wore perfume and red lipstick so Evening in Paris it was. I wonder how much it cost then? A whiff of “Old Spice”and I’m with my Dad in a nano second. He’s holding my small hand in his large calloused hand and we’re walking along. I loved that scent and still do, it’s a classic.  I smell it with my heart.

Do young people today know the smell of pepto-bismal pink bubble gum or root beer barrels candy? I think they may be smell deprived, except of course for the smell of coffee. Now that’s a  smell that evokes strong positive feelings for most of us. We remember sitting with friends or family drinking coffee  or brewing a morning  cup at our campsite. Coffee shops thrive because coffee tastes great, but mainly because it’s an excuse to sit and talk. It’s a place where people congregate and share thoughts and feelings. There’s little distractions, it’s just coffee and us. People who say, “Why would I go out and get a cup of coffee when I can make one at home?” just don’t get it at all! I kinda feel sorry for them. In my opinion, if you put a good coffee shop in the middle of the dessert people would find it and hang out there. It seems coffee is a good excuse to come together and be human. We need help to do that in our world that seems so very random and often painful. Coffee shops and world peace! Now that’s a wonderful slogan.

Of course, there’s always those awful smells that bring us back to memories and places we may not want to be. If I catch a whiff of something that smells a bit like the bottle of mag citrate  used to do a colonoscopy prep, I’m immediately sick to my stomach and desperate to get away from it. A dirty diaper smell is not pleasant, but we are certainly encouraged to change it and make baby and others around more comfortable. We care for our fellow humans by keeping them clean when they can’t do it themselves. What’s that bad smell? The smell of “clean” ,like Lysol, is not exactly wonderful, but we like it a lot because it helps us get rid of bad smells. Bad smells give us a lot of information and can save our lives at times…the smell of gas, the smell of fire, a skunk, a stink bug…rotten eggs….sour milk and ad nauseum.  However, a bit of caution is needed so we don’t over- sanitize our world. We need to be exposed to some germs and we need smells for our noses to smell. The cloying scent of some smells, created  to cover-up natural smells, can be too smelly!

Pepe le Pew, a very cute cartoon skunk,  is one of my favorite characters from my childhood. He was French and liked to wrap females in his arms,profess his love for them by declaring “My Cherie” and trying to plant a big kiss on them. I was too young to know about sexual harrassment…. He smelled like a skunk so his paramours resisted him. It was kinda touching how oblivious he was.  So I’d like to remind you how important smells are and ask you, “ Do you smell that?”