You Have That Old Man Smell Going For You

Embrace the Gaining Years

Recently, while standing in line at the grocery behind a very, very old gentleman, I caught a scent that absolutely transported me. He appeared to be a nice man, kind to the clerk, chatty, buying healthy food, but his overcoat was, let’s just say as old as him.

But that smell was everything that was my life growing up; it smelled like my uncle smoking disgusting old cigars sitting out on his porch. It smelled like that easy chair behind the dining room table at my grandma’s house where I’d sit to read or watch TV. My uncle Frank would take me for rides in his big old convertible Chrysler 300 and you guessed it, the passenger seat smelled like that smell.

And today, in my closet hangs a powder blue suit jacket that belonged to my father that smells like the man that was in front of me. That smell wasn’t sad. It made me happy.

That made me happy for two reasons; first, because I have an awful sense of smell so when it’s working and it takes me back, that’s a fun ride. But also because that smell - the one on that guy in front of me - is a real thing.

There’s even a Japanese word for it - kareishuu, which literally means ‘the smell of gaining years.’

In other words, Old Person Smell. And because we all have an aunt or uncle or grandma that smells like that, study after study has concluded that Old Person Smell is generally thought of as pleasant.

I dug deeper. As it turns out, there’s an actual change in our body’s chemistry as we age that produces the smell. I wasn’t able to find an uncomplicated way of explaining it, but it has something to do with oxidation of lipid acids or fatty tissue degrading or something like that. I don’t know. But it’s real!

Here’s the part that I find cool. I‘m willing to bet that every one of you reading this knows exactly what I’m talking about, have smelled that smell, and that has made you think of somebody from your past.

A natural chemical reaction - universal - which leads us somewhere personal. I love that. Anyway, as the man headed out of the store, I considered saying something but it’s pretty impolite to comment on anybody’s smell, even if it’s positive, so I let it go. Besides, who knows, it could just have been moth balls all along!