Take me back

I mentioned earlier how itchy I am, and I've been using lotion on my legs. I was wondering if my Burt's Bees (buttermilk?) lotion had enough oomph for the task at hand, so I dug through the linen closet for old, mostly used lotions of a stronger variety. I found a St. Ives bottle, travel size, but when I tried to get stuff out of it it was pretty yellowed and clumped. I pitched it. Then I found a Vaseline Intensive Care clinical strength formula, and after I got the coagulated part out of the spout, I got enough out to use it.

And here's the point of the story. When I squirt it out, it smells just like the lotion that was on my grandmother's dresser when I was a kid. Is there an old lotion smell? Do lotions go bad (or at least the scents in the lotion)? I don't remember it smelling like this when I first bought it, so there must be a point at which lotions "turn".

It's not horrible and I'm still using it, but it made me think of other smells from my childhood. I had a small bottle of Lily of the Valley parfum (or maybe toilet water) that had all but evaporated, but what remained was a strong, aged smell. It came from my other grandmother's house after she died, so who knows how old it was. My mother used to wear Shalimar powder and Evening in Paris perfume. There was always a jar of Noxzema skin cream on the bathroom vanity, and it would work wonders on sunburned shoulders. My dad liked Ivory soap or King's Castille soap. Once in a while, we'd have some Lava soap in the house, but I can't remember why. He also wore Old Spice or Aqua Velva aftershave.

I'm not a big perfume wearer. I have lots of different kinds because R often buys me perfume as a gift, but the truth is I rarely remember to wear it. I think it tickles my nose so maybe I don't remember because of that. I have bottles that probably date back 25 years. And they smell like the stuff that was on my grandma's dresser. So now I'll save them for my granddaughter to sniff and commit to memory for the rest of her life. Then she can blog about it.