I thought about the smell of a library today. Not really thought, more like it hit me for a brief second while I was driving my car.
My mind is easily triggered by scents & smells. Happens all the time. Burning leaves, perfume, food cooking. They’ll make me think of things easily. But they’re also pretty easy to come by in day to day life.
But not the scent of a library?
I haven’t even been in one for years yet it was the first thing I could identify when the smell went by. Most of you know what I mean without even having to describe, it’s that distinct.
Aside from that, it flooded my head with thoughts related– grade school books, campy inspirational art posters, the first CDs I ever got.
Oh man, I remembered that. They were Bob Marley, Miles Davis & Jimi Hendrix. I still can’t listen without remembering the way it felt when I got those albums there.
I know that there was absolutely nothing new or unknown about those artists. But back then the experience of finding it and taking it home just to listen without risk, without charge, really made me feel that I connected with something.
I think I liked those albums more because of that. I felt connected on a personal level and the artists didn’t even have anything to do with it. Hell, 2 of them were long dead at the time.
I think if I would have had to buy them to find out what they sounded like, I may have even been disappointed. Weighing everything against how much it cost me just to find out.
And there would be no feeling in time connected to it, the way the smell of a library seems to be.