I was reading an article about the smelliest street in New
York (and possibly the entire universe) (On Broome, between Allen and Eldridge)
and it said that when you walk past it you can’t help thinking of dying and
rotting. I think it’s true that suddenly being hit with a smell can force a
particular thought /memory into your head, and while most of the smells are
recognizable, say, your grandmother’s perfume, or the bleachy laundry smell of
a gym locker-room, occasionally these smells are not pinpoint-able at all;
there are a few places in New York, and one or two here in California as well, where I
recognize a smell so strongly but don’t know why or what it’s connected to. It’s
like when you are trying to remember a word and you know that it is right on
the tip of your tongue. I always wonder if these smells are from a past life or
from the life of an ancestor that I’ve somehow inherited without my knowledge.
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