The Carrot Stick Kids

As we get older, we often encounter many things that remind us of our childhood. Nostalgia, a familiar feeling, brings us back to our happy, or not so happy memories. Back to when we roamed the earth as carefree, helpless, midgets. These memories are triggered in many ways. We could see a child whose behavior reminds us of ourselves, come across an old toy we used to play with, or even a familiar scent can take us back to our past.


This is a story about the POWER of the sense OF SMELL.

Women. We love our bath soaps. Gels, body washes, moisturizers. No, I did not eat it again. I had learned my lesson. But we had this new body wash that was divine. It was called "Yes to Carrots!" and yes! it was made from carrots, along with other ingredients. This body wash was amazing, but it was the smell that really caught my attention. I couldn't place it, but it had just smelled familiar. Days and days went by, I kept smelling the body wash to see what it was about the scent that I enjoyed more than usual. This idea possessed me. I was completely obsessed to figure it out. I asked my mom to smell my arm to help me figure it out and she just called me a "freak" and walked away. But I was a woman on a mission, I was determined to discover the truth behind the scent. Finally, halfway through the bottle, it dawned on me...

The scent, this carrot body wash. This scent, was the same scent, as my Cabbage Patch Kids baby doll when I was younger. I remember pretending to be a young mother, playing on that taboo, holding my cabbage patch baby doll, with its yellow onsie, pampering it, and smelling on its bald head the same scent that was held in the body wash bottle in my shower many years later. Personally, I never liked the cabbage patch kids, they were not very attractive. My mother used to call them the Mary Kate and Ashley dolls, because they just had that kind of look to them. But there was something about that baby doll, the scent, that always stuck out to me. It was special. I had smelled other Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and none of them had that special scent. I remember being a tiny tot, playing with that baby doll.

Unfortunately, the constant reminder of the memory disappeared with the body wash, but it was a pleasant memory nonetheless. I await more memories to come flooding back as life passes on. Instances like these give me positive reassurance that I have never truly forgotten "The Good Ol' Days."