The smell of fabric softener

Ever have this experience:

You're out for a walk, you're enjoying the evening air, listening to the birds chirping their last calls of the day, watching the children out playing happily in the street, feeling so good in the present moment.  Then, out of nowhere, a smell comes and hijacks you and takes you back to another place in time.  All of a sudden you're not on your walk but in some special place in your past.  You feel different, everything even looks different.  You're bombarded with happy memories, see people you love, it all becomes so clear you feel like you're actually there.  That one smell had the power to take you back in time.

This happens to me a lot, usually when I'm taking a walk in my neighbourhood after dinner.  And the smell that really holds this power for me is the smell of fabric softener.  What's funny is that it's not one particular brand like Downy or Snuggle, it's any fabric softener.  Now, growing up I don't remember my family using fabric softener; maybe we did, maybe we didn't, but it doesn't stick in my mind either way.  No, fabric softener was used in another house I grew up in, another place I felt loved and comforted every time I entered.  The smell of fabric softener, for me, will always be linked to this house and bring back so many happy memories of times spent in the company of the people who lived in it. 

To this day, the house still smells of fabric softener, and going there still makes me happy ♥♥