Oranges and Salt Air – The Scents of an Orange County Child’s Memories

The Orange County in which I grew up is very different from the one I now know.

I wish I had pictures of the “countryside” then.  I didn’t know it could be different or that I would want those memories on paper decades later.

I can close my eyes and smell the orchards of orange trees, the citrus scents wafting on the heated summer air while we cruised down the 5 freeway with the windows down.

My Orange County memories are hard to believe for those who weren’t here.  My son asks, “Orange trees, Mom, where?”  “You know the mall on the way to Grandma’s (The Irvine Spectrum)?  That was all orange groves when I was your age.”  “No!”

Today it’s a concrete jungle, a place with a wide variety of shops and entertainment, but in my memories it will always be citrus on the July air.

Fortunately, some of my Orange County memories can still be relived today.  The other scent of childhood for me is the salt air, and that has not changed.

I can still sit at the ocean in the early morning and smell the salt on the air, sometimes briny, sometimes fishy, but always reminding me of my childhood and the joys of living in Newport Beach and Orange County.

What brings back memories of your childhood?