Have you ever been assaulted by a smell?

Walking down the street, creeping out of a vent in the sidewalk; strolling along the mid-way of a carnival or fair, wafting its way from a kiosk — sometimes an odor will “hit you” and almost send you reeling. Sometimes that odor will even thrust your psyche back into another time and place.

Maybe it’s the sweet smell of caramel apples.
Maybe it’s the pungent punch of garlic and onion.
Maybe it’s moldy and murky smell of a basement.
Maybe it’s the seaweedy smell of the beach.

Whatever the odor, it is officious — meaning, it is “large and in charge.” It teleports you back to a particular place and a particular time. Each of us has memory smells.

Our sense of smell is the physical sense most associated with memory. Smells, more than sounds, more th…