Earlier today, someone mentioned the old Panzer pickle company located here in Baltimore, and just the mention of that name made me smile. Baltimore is a big delicatessen town. The very word delicatessen means a place to get tasty foods, and just walking into one of our neighborhood delis means you'll be hungrier just being there than you were before because of the sights (all those hams and pastramis and cheeses, lined up for your inspection) and the smells (the piquant cheeses hanging up, the fresh yeasty loaves of bread, the spices!
Just by getting some cold cuts on a roll, some chips and a dill pickle that, moments before, was swimming in a briney barrel, puts you in food nirvana like few places will.
But, what accounts for the fact that we can still remember the aroma of pleasant things? Not just food...once you've sniffed a bough of honeysuckle, it stays with you, like spring rain, like freshly cut grass and so many happy smells.
The word for memories forever stamped in our noggin is "eidetic,"from the Greek meaning "seen." Some people have that photographic memory, meaning that once they see their grocery list, they won't forget the corn flakes when they get to the Try 'N' Save.
But eidetic memories are more than visual. We save in our minds (what's left of them) details about senses of hearing, and feeling, as well as taste and smell.
Panzer and Co. went out of business years ago, but ask anyone from our town how great their food tasted and smelled!
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