Scent Memory

The wildfire raging miles away from my workplace has the entire city filled with smoke. The interesting thing is that the smoke concentration is worse indoors. The 3-story building in which I work reeks with smoke.

This morning I headed to the bathroom, freshly cleaned by our fabulous custodial staff. The sharp scent of cleaning solution mixed with smoke brought a childhood memory back as clear as if it were happening right then. I used to spend a lot of time with my aunt and cousin when I was a kid. My aunt cleaned the social services office. This was in the late 70s early 80s when smoking was allowed in the workplace. When I accompanied my aunt to work one of my jobs was cleaning the ash trays. I would dump them and wash them with a blue solution in a spray bottle. It smelled exactly like the bathroom this morning. It made me feel really happy. I loved going with my aunt to her cleaning jobs. There's something otherworldly about wandering around an empty building after the sun's gone down.