When I kind of let myself go for a bit and work up a stink of newports and body odor, the smell comforts me. It puts me in a place that is impossible to go. My senses and their connection to memory amazes me.
Mentally it puts me standing next to my grandfather Opie, who has been gone for over a decade. He smoked newports for decades, even secretly when his doctor and his grandchildren urged him to quit. He was terrible at keeping the secret as he would emerge from the bathroom with billowing smoke pouring out.
It’s amazing how the smell brings me back into the presence of my best friend and idol, my biggest fan and mentor. Dr. Richard Hughes was the most intelligent man I’ve ever met.
You could go ahead and read his books if you don’t believe me.
If you have any notion that I’m at all bright, it comes from my childhood proximity to Opie.
I like to let myself go a bit, for a quick moment next to him.
