By Fred Houts They say that smell goes straight to the memory, that it is the most easily relived experience. An outboard motor's exhaust or a sliver of Dove soap can make you 13. A faint waft of sawdust or charred meat or unlit gas immediately fetches times we had long ago allowed to blur into the background that is our past.
Vision is easily a close second to smell, when it comes to making an impression.
The sun can blind you as you make your way across the Bay Bridge. There's a moon so full that you can read under it. There's the welcome sight of your desk topped by dim halogen and the first time you saw Rosenquist's Zone at the Philadelphia Art Museum. And there's a third sense, the one of hearing. There's the Beatles' White Album, which you will forever associate with your first girlfriend and Toad the Wet Sprocket for your second and Miles Davis for your third.