Although we moved from the South when I was very young, the smells of the South remain with me to this very day. I remember the distinct smells of freshly plowed fields and grass being cut from the median as you drive along the roads, highways, and interstates. A field of cucumbers being harvested has a distinct smell, as does hay being cut and rolled along with plowed potatoes.
The most memorable smell from my youth is the strong, sweet fragrant smell of wildflowers growing alongside the roads just about everywhere you travel during the springtime. Growing up in south Alabama I’d walk barefoot along the dirt roads taking in the scent of wildflowers as it mixed with the subtle smell of the fine dust from the dirt road as it flowed through the spaces between my toes.
In addition to the smell of wildflowers in the springtime, the other smell that triggers my memories of the south is the smell of fire. In addition to burning undergrowth in pine tree forests, there were always burn barrels or a specific place to burn trash in the evenings just before dark.
During my first trip to West Africa, I was immediately transported back to the south via my auditory senses as I rode my bicycle along the dirt roads there just before dusk smelling the same fragrant scents from burning fires as I did in south Alabama. Most smells I encountered as a child growing up in Alabama come back to me in all types of situations and circumstances in any given place and time and it automatically takes me back to my youth.
