Sometimes all you have to do is open a jar. The smell of Noxzema takes me back to the summer of 1957, and the front seat of the old Hudson my boyfriend drove, and how we parked at the Amagansett beach at night and made out like crazy, and afterward I was afraid I was pregnant, even though we didn’t do anything but kiss. The fear and the pleasure are as fresh to me every time I smell the stuff, and I keep a jar around so I can remember being young.
~ Abigail Thomas, Thinking About Memoir
Image: gabysbeautyblog
Wonderful memory 🙂 thanks for sharing
I get it! I smell Noxema and I’m instantly 15 again. They say olfactory memories are the strongest?… Thanks for the brief waltz down memory lane, pal!
Smiling. I was walking down that same lane with you Lori.
WLS – the power of olfactory memory…my son’s hair after a bath when he was a baby, ‘Love’s Baby Soft’ cologne,…I even have a crib memory involving the smell of witch hazel which my dad used as an after shave. I’d pace back and forth in my crib waiting for him to come and get me…sigh.
I can smell all of it Mimi…you took me back.
Noxema for the sunburn relief, Vick’s vapor rub for the chest colds…..ahhhh
I still keep a jar in the cupboard and slather it on summer’s sunburnt shoulders. 🙂 MJ
Slather. That’s the word for noxzema…
And then they put it in Cover Girl..”the clean make up with Noxzema”. ☺
Yes, this did…
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Remember? Do you remember??? I do ….
I can smell Old Spice After Shave from a mile away. It reminds me of my dad and the days when I knew that, no matter what, he’d take care of me.
Old Spice. Intoxicating.
Scent takes us right to our reptile brain–old, deep, with instant memories. Thank the Lords of Electricity electroshock couldn’t breach that scaly hide!
Thank goodness for that.
so funny, i’m the original jergen’s lotion has that hold on me. the old almond/cherry scent takes me back to my childhood in an instant.
We didn’t have Jergen’s where I grew up, but Noxzema, yes.
Thanks for the memory David. I can still remember the smell of this stuff😃
Me too Tina.
My mother used to use it. Definitely from days gone by.
Mother? You didn’t?
Well, she used it on us when we were kids. Dry northern climate. Good for the skin? So she thought, anyway. I’m not sure. Nivea was her other standby. That was better for chapped hands than the Noxema.
Nivea, yes…another evocative smell.
I must admit I have never smelled it .. yes it was another planet I grew up on!
Old Spice takes me back to my Dad and feeling secure. Wet dog is also something that has stayed with me with memories of being outdoors on windy days with dogs 🙂
Old Spice and Wet Dog, irresistible!
I have resorted to hiding my jar of Eucalyptus & Menthol infused, refreshing Noxzema, the contents kept disappearing at a fast rate & I don’t care to share my personal care items….I like to smell many things, one is cinnamon rolls baking, homemade applesauce simmering, so many smells drifting evoke many memories..now a funny story, about a year ago a good friend was being more than formal he said, may I ask you a personal question, I said of course, “what is the perfume you are wearing” I said it is either “Born Wild” or “Saint” (ha, what a spectrum) he said oh, I said why, he said “well, it suits you” I reached my car and thought about that…I texted him and I said which one suits me? He didn’t reply..I brought it up not long ago, again, and he won’t answer..I am guessing he meant “Saint” since I send him Bible verse in emails and I am very much a lady…it was fun to get some mileage out of it, though…
Smiling…
I once wrote a blog about smells and memory — I was working on a page for a Health Care catalog and came across a bottle of “pretend” penicillin…and the smell of the medicine came right back into my head. Funny after all these years what memories smells trigger. Great story.
Penicillin. Ah yes. Another evocative memory triggered