Smell-mory

Ever you ever noticed how you can be transported to places from a single smell?

Printing shop and dark room smells do that for me. The chemicals contains acetic acid, sodium thiosulfate, hydroquinone and other smells that you can find in every day life. Acetic acid is vinegar. The other smells you will smell once in a while in passing.

These smells take me back to my dad's shops. I say shops because it is a smell that has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

In Monaco, it was at Alma Edition, in his dark room. When I would be in his office, once in a while he would have pictures to develop. I remember walking in the small darkroom with him and having to be out of the way. The door would close, the black cloth in front of the door would be clipped to make sure no light trickled in, the red light would come on and the picture would appear on the photographic paper by magic. The smells were the sweet aroma of me being with Dad. I still have the Nikon F that he used to take a lot of these pictures.

In the US, it was at the different printing shops he worked. The last one was Hearn Lithographing in downtown Houston. I would stop by to surprise Dad ever now and then. No matter what he would stop what he was doing, made sure every one there knew I was his son. Dad was proud that I was his son, and it showed. He would introduce me to his colleagues or re-introduce me as the case may be, and you can tell from the response of the people that my father had nothing but uplifting word about who I was and what I was doing.

Next time you smell a familiar, pleasant smell, let it take you back to that memory and linger in it a little longer. They are worth cherishing.