Distinct smells?

Question

Does anyone ever get that rare moment when they smell something, not directly, but a more broad thing like summer or the first day of school?

For me, summer doesn't always smell like grass or anything you can pinpoint, it just has a smell I can't describe, but know when I smell it. The same goes for shopping with my mom when I was little. Every once in a while it's just like.... wow.

I sound crazy. But it's kinda hard to explain. :P

Answer 1

I don't think you are crazy.  Smell is a major part of existence!  We just mask it with our foods and the industrial odors and people who smoke kill their taste and smell!

Smelling differences is like walking on a path.  Every path has a distinct sound like no other path when you walk on it, and, every path sounds differently at different locations: there is the sound of dry dead trampled grass underfoot, green supple grass not walked on very much, hard earth, gravel, sand, twigs, all making different sounds under your feet.  I love the sound of walking on a path!

Smell is the same way.  In the winter there are wintery smells, in the spring, the summer and the fall plant life, animal life, even industrial activities all make different smells.

The first day of school you may smell the subtile but profuse aroma of new clothing that was bought for school to start, new equipment such as notebooks and paper, the school may be freshly cleaned to begin the season.

There are a variety of things that have different smells, like in the forest, on a farm, at the beach are special smells just for that place.  I love the smell of a steam locomotive that burns fuel oil, the atomizer in the firebox mixes steam with fuel oil and the blower provides air for combustion, it has a sweet smell to it!  I always have loved that smell!  Coal-burning steam locomotives do not have that smell!  Then there is the obvious smell of a new automobile.  Things like that.

I do not think they are rare moments.  Animals such as we humans have turned off our awareness of smells, because we no longer have to smell things to survive, but once, we did!

Answer 2

Yes.

Smell is actually very important to humans and very interesting.  There's a part of the brain -- the rhinencephelon -- that is one of the oldest parts of the brain from the point of view of evolution.  What does that mean?  When we humans were evolving, one of the first things we did was learn to smell!  It sounds a little weird but makes some sense chemically.  The sense of smell takes in a bunch of air-borne chemicals and analizes them into one of seven groups -- minty, flowery, putrid, acrid, camphoraceous, ethereal, and musty.

These smells are imprinted on your memory and you recall them for the rest of you life.

Answer 3

yes