Fresh Mowed Grass

This morning I was driving around with the top down running errands when all of a sudden, I smelled one of the most wonderful scents in the world...fresh mowed lawn. Not just like someone mowing their front lawn...I'm talking about acres of lawn being mowed...like on a school campus. And then it hit me, a very distinct memory of starting school as a child. I always associated starting school with the clean fresh smell of just mowed grass. A new school year, a new beginning, and newly mowed grass...

So, then I started thinking of all the other scents I associate with growing up. Here are a few:

• The smell of black permanent markers reminds me of school field trips...my mom would wrap a can of Coke in foil and pack our lunches in brown paper bags with our names written in black markers on the outside. A can of Coke was a treat reserved just for field trips.
  

• Ammonia and disinfectect...the nursing home where my Great Grandpa spent his final years. I loved him and I loved visiting with him and family when we went to see him, but I HATED the smell of the hospital. To help us escape the sadness of the halls, Dad would take us to the old Coke machine - where you put in your money, slid the door over and pulled out a bottle of Coke - and get us a treat.
  

• Pine trees...clean, fresh, strong...the scent we smelled about 25 minutes before we reached our camping destination in the Sequoia Mountains. We knew we were getting close when Dad rolled down the window, we breathed in clean air, and we smelled the trees.
  

• Eucalyptus trees...the smell of the Central Coast of California...a smell I came to love during college...when the central coast became my home. Every time I go back to visit, a million memories come rushing back from college.
  

For just a few minutes this morning, I was transported back to the first day of every year of elementary school...when life was much simpler...and fresh mowed grass signified the beginning of something new and exciting.