I’ve heard the sense of smell is the strongest, like a line that tugs you right back to another moment all jam packed will the feelings from that moment too. I experienced this years ago when I managed to locate a metal spray can of Aqua Net in preparation for an 80s themed party–I was dragged back, maybe kicking and screaming a bit, to those days when it was all about bang height and backward teasing and spraying, spraying, spraying the whole mess with half a can of Aqua Net, then blowdrying to shellac that crap in place. I had all the feelings all of a sudden: the insecurity of middle school and wondering whether Heather managed to pass my note to the cute boy in Gym class and dreading the shirtless scoliosis test all the girls had to be given in the locker room, standing smack dab in front of a panel of judges (aka: our female teachers) with clipboards and stern expressions.
Well, recently my sweet sister found and purchased something intricately woven into my memories of living in Turkey, both when I was in 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade, living in Adana (in southern Turkey), and again during my high school years living in the capital of Ankara. What she found connected all those moments spread across my childhood and pulled me back in to afternoons eating Iskender with my family, leaving the restaurant greasy and satisfied, but then being stopped at the door by the waiter and told to open our hands to have them baptized in tangy, clean Lemon Cologne. Those memories bring about different feelings–the happy kind. The ones that make me stop and just enjoy the sweetness. I’m reminded of hospitality and beautiful, messy culture, of wide, unfettered smiles and streets crowded with spices and rugs and boys kicking a soccer ball through the crowd while the man in the miniaret cries out in prayer.
Sometimes when I need to remember, when I need to clear the mess, I just douse my hands in lemon cologne and take a deep inhale, and I smile.
Holly Yoder DeHerrera 
Leave a comment