The Scent of an Era

I grew up about six blocks from the University of Illinois campus and even though we weren't supposed to travel outside of our neighborhood, we often did.

As a young teenager in the early 1970's, my favorite places to go were the black light poster shops on Green Street. I was fascinated by the glow in the dark peace signs, the R. Crumb comic books and the incense that smelled exactly the same in each shop.

When I was around the age of eighteen I attended my first party where marijuana made an appearance. And it was at that party that I realized for the first time that it wasn't incense I was smelling in those shops.

I started to notice that smell everywhere - on the clothes of my friends, in the bathrooms of bars and even in the breeze from a park where I'd be relaxing.

People tend to remember the music, clothes and attitudes of the 1970's. I happened to remember what that decade smelled like.