Learning from each other’s knowing

When I was like 6 or 7 or something, we had a bottle of blue cheese dressing that went bad in the refrigerator.  It may have also broken.  For the kids out there, I should explain that they used to make salad dressing bottles out of glass.  Glass is what is on the front of an iPhone.  They did not make salad dressing bottles out of iPhones, just the stuff that goes on the front.  Not the screen protector, the actual screen.

Anyway, the smell of that stuff gave me a headache.  The blue cheese dressing, not the screen protector.  To this day I cannot eat blue cheese, and I distinctly remember everything about an event that was probably more than 30 years ago.  Isn’t it odd that we don’t expect people to remember things from their early childhood, but we do expect people to remember things from their adult lives?  Even if those things happened 30 years ago.  Weird.

But my point is about the smell, and how strong it was and how smell can evoke memories.  Especially about feelings.  I remember that people in the house, my parents and what have you, were very sympathetic of the fact that I had a headache and were very solicitous of my needs.  Since this didn’t happen very often, I was touched.  Not like that, pervs.

The thing that brings this up is thyme.  Not like 30 years that have gone by sort of time.  Thyme.  The spice.  Of “parsley, sage, rosemary, and…” fame.  I used some thyme the other day and again tonight.  Do you know what thyme smells like?  Thanksgiving.  Specifically the stuffing.  That shit is awesome and you need to put some in your food.