The Smells of Life

What do you smell like? Little Miss Phillips tried to describe what I smell like but bogged down. I didn't take that as a bad thing. I inventoried the stuff I use, even fleetingly, and came away with something.

Cousin Tammy says that “Old Spice” reminds her of her father, Uncle Rudy.

Old Spice has a maritime theme and Uncle Rudy served in the Navy. I see how that worked.

The nautical aspect features an image of a sailing ship, and I assumed it was the same ship on all bottles through time. Nope, different ships. The first was of “The Grand Turk,” the original ship.

It is an old fragrance and smells like citrus, bay leaves, cloves and other things.

Temporarily my favorite after shave was “Bay Rum,” which smelled neither like bay leaves nor rum and was only popular with me. The container was squarish glass with a woven straw feature.

In the 1960's “Canoe” was popular and still is. There was a similar smelling cologne for girls.

“British Sterling” was not a cologne for a jeans and sneakers day. It was buttoned up in a bottle that looked like a flask with a silver cap.

The advertisements read, “Make him a legend in his own time.” I believed we were supposed to think “James Bond.” It was popular for a while, but if James Bond had worn it, the girls would have been dousing themselves with it.

Then there was and is my favorite “English Leather” in the thick glass container packaged in a wooden cedar box.

My first bottle was a birthday gift from a girl, who must have liked it a lot. The English Leather lasted longer than the girl, but I still have the box.

Without planning to develop a favorite scent, I studied my inventory of personal care items I use.

My favorite soap, “Irish Spring,” has a top note of “bergamot,” which in nature is sort of a lemon. The secondary note I think is “eucalyptus.”

There was never an intentional exclusion of scents. The choices emerged without my paying attention: Sort of the way men do things.

When I feel like going retro, I have a splash from a bottle of Mennen's “Skin Bracer” that had belonged to my father, who died in 1994.

While jotting this note to you, I dashed a splash of Skin Bracer on my hands and waited.

It all smells about the same. I smell like my dad.

joenphillips@yahoo.com