The smell of memory
Mar. 19th, 2003 01:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikI keep getting reminded just how strong a memory trigger scent can be. To be honest, I love it when it happens, good or bad.
Last week I used my REI dividend to buy a camping-gadget I'd long wanted but could never really justify: a multi-fuel backpacking stove. It was either that or a Garmin Geko, but I already have enough GPS gear. It's an Optimus Nova, made by Brunton. It's an incredibly powerful little one-burner stove but it packs down to about the volume of a paperback book rolled up a little. It'll be perfect for tossing in the tankbag when going on motorcycle camping trips this summer. The stove burns anything from kerosene to diesel and even unleaded -- allowing me to use gas out of the oversized tank on my GS-Adventure bike.
The best fuel for it, however, is 'white gas'. One buys this at camping stores. I picked up a gallon of it and decided to give the stove a test-fire. The changing scent of white-gas from the unburnt vapors of pouring it into the fuel bottle, to the pungent orange-tinted flames of the priming burn -- it instantly brought back memories. I didn't even know I'd used whitegas before, but now I realize that's what my dad used in his old coleman mantle-lantern. The scent of that thing getting filled and fired up was the hallmark of family campouts and early scout trips.
My body was in my own suburban backyard, fussing with a little stove. But for a brief moment my mind was off tromping through Camp Del Webb, Utah with a bunch of my fellow scouts... Emerald Bay campground on Catalina island... or even the numerous roadside KOA's with the family.
Neat.
Last week I used my REI dividend to buy a camping-gadget I'd long wanted but could never really justify: a multi-fuel backpacking stove. It was either that or a Garmin Geko, but I already have enough GPS gear. It's an Optimus Nova, made by Brunton. It's an incredibly powerful little one-burner stove but it packs down to about the volume of a paperback book rolled up a little. It'll be perfect for tossing in the tankbag when going on motorcycle camping trips this summer. The stove burns anything from kerosene to diesel and even unleaded -- allowing me to use gas out of the oversized tank on my GS-Adventure bike.
The best fuel for it, however, is 'white gas'. One buys this at camping stores. I picked up a gallon of it and decided to give the stove a test-fire. The changing scent of white-gas from the unburnt vapors of pouring it into the fuel bottle, to the pungent orange-tinted flames of the priming burn -- it instantly brought back memories. I didn't even know I'd used whitegas before, but now I realize that's what my dad used in his old coleman mantle-lantern. The scent of that thing getting filled and fired up was the hallmark of family campouts and early scout trips.
My body was in my own suburban backyard, fussing with a little stove. But for a brief moment my mind was off tromping through Camp Del Webb, Utah with a bunch of my fellow scouts... Emerald Bay campground on Catalina island... or even the numerous roadside KOA's with the family.
Neat.
