On Saturday, I accompanied a friend to an outdoor classic car show held in the parking lot of a neighbourhood shopping center. Most of the cars were from the '50s and '60s and, although original, were in pristine condition, as one would expect at such a show.
We were able to promenade around the cars -- without touching, of course -- but the windows of all the vehicles were open which lent itself to us observers sticking our heads in and checking out the upholstery and dashboards. What struck me -- and the reason I am moved to post on this subject -- was that when I would stick my head in I got an immediate "sense memory". I don't know if that is the correct term to use, but the "sense" was the sense of smell: the combination of the leather, plastic and metal that were used in production in the '60s all seemed to gell together and give off an emanation that brought me right back to when I was a kid! And I sensed immediately that I hadn't had that smell "package" in 40 years. So it brought back a whole range of feelings I had associated with being about 10 years old and being in those cars. It was quite an extraordinary experience and it convinced me that whatever materials Detroit was using back then (all the cars were American-made) must have been unique to that era because I didn't remember those aromas from other decades' cars.
