Smells that trigger memories

Growing up I used to play this game where I would stand on my knees in the back seat of the car facing backwards. I would close my eyes and try to prevent myself from falling each time my dad took a curve. On those roads that my dad often took I was able to keep myself from falling to the side. Although the best roads were those that we rarely went down which made the game more of a challenge. Now of course you would never allow your kids to play such a game. The reason became obvious when one day I was in the front seat of my dad's car. We were driving down Broad St in Central Falls. I was standing in the front seat of the car when all the sudden a car smashed in to the side of my dad's car at an intersection. The force of the crash sent my dad car flying into a telephone pole. My dad's instinct was to put up his arm to keep me from flying through the wind shield. Instead I did a face plant down in to the floor of the car. The telephone pole prevented us from smashing into a mirror and glass shop on the corner. The car was badly damaged and had to be towed to the body repair shop. I was just shakin up a bit. My dad's brand new 1969 Camaro was back after a few weeks. Every time we drover from that point on you could smell the paint and odor of the repair shop. I like the smell. It to this day reminds of my dad and his 1969 Camaro. So you are probably asking why this post now? Well this weekend I took my son skateboarding to a couple of the parks in the area. My son and I took my old beat up Honda Accord to the park. My car has some dried coffee in the center cup holders. Just as we got in the car he said. "Dad your car stinks." "But" He said "it stinks in a good way." I then thought he was going to say something kind but then he said "it reminds me of you!" So maybe someday when he gets older and gets into a car with spilt coffee in the cup holders he will think back to his dad trucking him to all the skate board parks in Massachusetts.