Coal Tar soap

Ultraviolet wrote about her favourite scents, and about smells that make her feel sick, and it struck me that there is one smell that I greatly dislike but which makes me feel happy.

Have you ever smelt Wright's Coal Tar soap? My maternal grandparents always had it, for using after working in the garden. They really believed in the disinfecting power of Wright's Coal Tar soap. So do I, and so would you if you smelt it. It's truly horrible. I have never met anybody else who uses Wright's Coal Tar soap, and my grandparents died quite a while ago.

A couple of years ago I was in NZ, and on a whim I went into a chemist and asked if they had any Wright's Coal Tar soap. To my astonishment they did, and the saleswoman brought it to me. I stared at the familiar packet, then held it up to my nose and took a good whiff.

I was whisked efficiently back to being about five, and blissfully happy.

"GAWD! That' horrible!" I said, and from the depths of my childhood enquired, "Does anybody actually buy this stuff?"

"Not many do," replied the woman, and she sounded far, far away. "But occasionally someone asks for it. That's why we have it."

"My grandparents always had some," I mumbled. I sniffed the packet again and stood there, wrapped in memories.

After a while the saleswoman asked, "Um, are you going to buy it?"

"HELL, NO!" I said. "Er, I mean, no, thanks." I handed it back. "I just wanted to smell it. I didn't believe it could be as bad as I remembered. It is, though. Thanks."

"Anytime you want a sniff, just pop in," she said, grinning, and put it back on the shelf.

I wish I'd bought it, now. You can't get it here. But I know why I didn't. I knew how my suitcase would smell if I'd tried to bring a bar of Wright's Coal Tar soap back with me to Japan. And while it's lovely to remember my grandparents fondly now and again, I don't really want to be haunted by them.