S’mores, salty ocean breezes, veggie burgers on the grill, sweaty people on the bus — what’s the smell you associate the most with summer?

This one is a tough call.  Living in the Ocean State (a.k.a. Rhode Island), the smells of summer are many.  Clam cakes and chowder at George’s in Galilee, low tide at Scarborough Beach, a fresh beach towel ripped from the beach bag, exhaust fumes from cars stuck in the traffic jam on Route 1.  What to choose?

Here it is, for me the smell of summer is: Coppertone suntan lotion.  You know the one–back in the day it was in a brown plastic bottle with yellow lettering and maybe even a yellow cap.  Every summer a bottle of it would be pulled out of the back of the linen closet and stuffed into the one of the many beach bags that filled the back of the car.  SPF’s were not high on the list of concerns in my childhood that I remember.  There certainly was no SPF 50 to be found on the shelves in CVS.

When we got to the beach we took turns putting it on. The moment it was opened and the first squirt plopped into someone’s little hand…it was summer!

Today’s shout-out is for the makers of Coppertone lotion, in all their iterations.  And, to all the friends and family members who were willing to get their hands filled with the white lotion, and the sand and grit that was sure to follow.  We had great summers!

Scents of the Season:

• Summer Scents
• This Air, That Air
• Summer In Heaven
• Seasonal Scents- Ironed Cotton Frocks
• Summah
• Daily Prompt: Seasonal Scents – The Grill Experiment
• Can I Have This One Thing?