Get a Whiff

This morning while deadheading the marigolds, 

I remembered that I used to do this. 

Now, this is the first year that I've grown marigolds of my own. Over 20 years gardening and I've never chosen to grow marigolds for myself. But this year --- well, they were a bargain and I needed some filler in my flower tubs. Pulling off those heads wasn't really when it happened. It was the smell when I opened the seed casing to check for mature seeds. That

citrus sour tang (Do you know it? Go sniff an old marigold bloom, quick!) 

was so strong! It made me recall that I'd done this very thing before as a child. 

Now how weird is that?

Every rare now and then, I experience a flood of memories about my paternal

 grandparents' home after stumbling across a certain house smell. 
(Do you know what I mean by house smell?) 

I might come across that unique aroma in an antique store or maybe at a home where dinner's just been cleared away. All of a sudden, ballooning open in my mind's eye - Grandma's house!  I'm able to recall little details which had slipped from memory, or so I thought. The snack drawer kept just for us kids, a tiny bathroom off the kitchen with lights that flicker on soooo slowly, basement stairs leading to damp darkness, ash trays with bean-bag bottoms, and the  shake-your-fat-off  belted 'exercise' machine. 

Rainstorms and dreamsicles, baby necks and diaper wipes, face powder and fresh linen, new lumber and dogfood, wooden closets and cedar chests, little boy sweat and baking cookies, crayons and new blacktop, cafeterias and gymnasiums, manure and silage - these are bits of my memory, with a story attached to every one. 

What things trigger your memories?