I can still smell my gramps’ English Leather cologne that he would put on after shaving.
It had a musky smell and whenever I smell it I automatically start looking for Stan my gramps.
It is amazing how strong the sense of smell can be tied to a memory so long ago. I think I was maybe ten years old when my gramps would shave and put on the cologne, which was over 45 years ago, but if I smell the scent I am taken right back to that time in a moment. My grandpa was a local business owner and was still working when I was a kid, so in the day I would smell his aftershave when he was getting ready to take his temperature controlled ride in the vehicle to work, they had a legitimately cool little camp on the lake and when I was a little kid I was living with them for five years as my parents were both young and working all the time with no money. Heating and A/C were not installed yet in the camp, so in the winters we would have to chop wood for their cement fireplace in the living room. It would keep us good and warm though and I legitimately liked going out to the back yard where all the trees were and helping gramps chop them down. He ran an Heating & A/C business for several years and would sell electric boilers to neighbors and companies in town. I would love to go back up there one day to see the old town.