Scent of a Memory

Rain Dancer

 My challenge to Viewpoints9 members reveals today:  create a piece inspired by one's memory of a scent.


I bounced around several ideas for this challenge:  burning leaves in the autumn (ages ago, of course...we don't do that anymore...we compost), chlorine in the Air Force Base pools where we spent hot summers,  the smell of Yokohama Harbor as our ship approached decades ago, the smell of the gyms where we played basketball.....

Each time I remembered more and more details particularly surrounding my memories of the scent of rain.  Two of my most distinct memories occurred in desert climes after long dry spells.  As rain was so desperately needed in both regions (Los Angeles and Fort Worth), I'm sure it was not too far from my consciousness at the time.

Years ago when we lived in L.A. the area suffered a horrific drought.  All we talked about was when the rains were going to come.  My daughter, then two, heard it all, naturally.  And I remember distinctly the day I smelled rain and called to her....'Come quick!  The rain's coming!'  She hurried to the screened door and stood in silhouette watching the big drops plop onto the sidewalk outside.  Slowly she turned to me.  She had the saddest, most dejected face.  "Rain is water" she declared slowly.  All this talk of rain coming...heck...she must have thought something incredible was coming...it had only been a few weeks since someone called Santa had come.  But, rain.  Well, that was something different.

Rain Dancer is inspired by one of my childhood memories during the time our family lived in Texas.  I'm the eldest child in my family and I was charged with the care and, particularly, the good behavior of my youngest brother, David.  And, he was a challenge for his sister!  One morning a peculiar colored light filled our living room.  We stopped our play and looked out.  Simultaneously, I smelled and blurted "Rain!"  With that, David ran out the screen door like a thing possessed.  Had he forgotten what rain was?  It had been a very long time since he'd seen it.

He was a wonder dancing on the sidewalk, face up and mouth open.

It was this last memory that won out for today's reveal.

Oh, and that gorgeous background is from Mickey Lawler Skydyes :^)  Thanks, Mickey!