Lip Smacker

In her comment on yesterday's post a friend referred to the Bonnie Bell lip smackers sold at my town's drug store, and the mere mention opened a floodgate for me. Of course: the lip smackers. I had forgotten all about them, but they were important to me too. Not to mention the fact that they so vividly conjure up fifth grade: whose hair feathered perfectly, who had the most turtlenecks with little hearts printed on them, whose barrettes best matched her corduroys--boy, was fifth grade in my hometown a shallow experience.

I am trying to remember what I learned in fifth grade. I know I wrote and performed a play with two other girls, but that was on our own volition. I have to say, I don't remember what we studied in any subject. I do, however, remember the social intricacies and the clothing and those sickly sweet, pastel colored tubes of lip gloss in nauseating flavors such as Bubble Gum and Root Beer. There were big, fat, thick tubes, and smaller skinny tubes, and even skinny tubes on rope that could be worn around your neck like a necklace. A very popular girl in the sixth grade whose hair did feather perfectly, and who was a whiz on roller skates (especially to Michael Jackson's "Thriller"), and who kept a comb in the back pocket of her designer jeans wore one of these, and if you ever walked by her in the hallway or glanced her way at a school function, she would inevitably be applying a fresh coat.

And it is always said that smell is the most powerful sense, and at various points I have scoffed at this, but certain smells--those scented markers from the White House Preschool, the heavily chlorinated pool where I first had swimming lessons, and the thick-tubed, pink-hued Bubble Gum Bonnie Bell lip smacker from the Post Road Apothecary--leave me no doubt. I love this, that someone else's memory can bring me back an entire year of school: the year I was in a school bus accident and broke my ribs and had to sleep with a heating pad, the year two friends made a club against me, the year I saw Brian's Song in the school gymnasium, and on and on and on.

Thanks, Betsy. Thanks, Bonnie Bell.