I'm spending the week with Cali and Ray. They have just moved into a beautiful home on the Puget Sound and though I came with the intention of helping them paint and move in, they're treating me like a guest on vacation--this morning I slept in and woke to a fresh sea breeze. While Cali went jogging, Ray and I sat on the deck and watched the ferries come in and go out. We had Great Harvest apple/date bread for breakfast and Cali and I went on a long walk down along the water's edge while Ray went to work. It's just been a great day.
Today as Cali showed me how she'd organized their kitchen and as we fixed supper tonight using new pans, measuring cups, bowls and plates and eating at a makeshift table made from a rubber-maid tub, it reminded me of being a newlywed with a waterbed, a spare bedroom full of gifts, hand-me-down furniture, and a sink full of Dawn dishwashing soap bubbles. I grew up a Liquid Palmolive girl, but Calvin was a Dawn man and so still today the scent of a bubbly pile of Dawn suds reminds me of his cologne, our little basement apartment and that first, newly married summer.
What smell takes you back to being a newlywed?
Are you a Palmolive, Dawn or (fill-in-the-blank) girl?
13 comments:
We lived in a tiny home which had wood floors, so the smell I always associate with that first year is that Dayglo floor wax.
that is a very sweet post Mom. I had no idea about any of that. I really liked reading this post. I love you.
I'm a Palmolive girl, shocker, eh? I guess that's another thing passed on.
My first year as a newlywed. . . quiet and clean. ahhhh. no roommates and the place was ALL MINE!
I grew up with Dawn, but now I'm a fancy dish soap girl. I love Mrs. Meyer's from the grocery store, and Marc gave me two different kinds from Williams-Sonoma for Christmas, ooh la la!
When I visited my grandma recently she told me that she loves the green apple scented Dawn but she usually buys the blue stuff from Costco in the big bottle. I told her she surely deserves the green apple kind!
I bought a gallon of some green apple scented dish soap at Sam's Club, so I'm still that kind of girl for a while (my mom never had a set brand, so I don't either).
I don't think there is a smell, but a freezing cold, tiny basement apartment takes me back. We wore flannel pajamas and sweatshirts to bed all year long. Nothing says romantic like flannel, right?
Oh I loved this post. I can't really think of any specific smells that takes me back. (I think I always just buy whatevers cheapest. I don't have a favorite. But for the record I have dawn right now.)
But as you described Cali and her new little kitchen it just REALLY took me back to that feeling of being newlyweds and deciding where the bowls should go in the kitchen cupboards. What an exciting and lovely time.
Their new place sounds fantastic, what a dreamy place to be a newlywed (or an old wed really).
I'd say the smell of our first apartment (where we lived for 6 years) would be the smell that reminded me of being a newlywed. It was a basement of an old house so it had a distinct smell, but we adored that place and were sad to leave when we'd outgrown it.
P.S. I'm not sure what brand of dish soap we have at the moment, but it's Pomegranate scent. I've gotten the Green Apple before too, and Michelle has got me loving the Mrs. Meyer's soap as well.
The smell of Peach O's reminds me of our first apartment.
And I buy what is on sale :) Usually an orange scented one if I can cause Linc likes it.
I can't remember an exact smell with our first apartment but when I was pregnant with Sam (our first) Jeff had an internship in Mexico and we lived in a little casita on a cliff overlooking the beach...it had red tile floors and a distinct smell that was part sea breeze/part something else...what sweet memories!
Jeff and I are the kind of people who use the dishwasher more than washing by hand so I don't have a main brand of dish-washing soap.
Loved this post!:)
I think 90% of newlyweds lived in a basement apartment. Cali and Ray are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place and so close to the ocean. My mom cried when she saw our first apartment and offered to give us money so we could live somewhere better. What's better than 1/2 block south of BYU campus and $165/month utilities paid? We loved it!
Mom,
I'll just say it again. Your blog brings to light all the little details I've never learned, but can't imagine not knowing, about you. This IS a sweet post. It makes me want to BECOME a dawn girl... just so I can go back in time with you.
Cali
I think the smell of smoke reminds us of our first apartment. we dont smoke, but all of the people who lived around us did, and their smoke would come through the vents. so, needless to say, I love the smell of Fabreze.
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