Desitin

If you have ever used Desitin, the number one pediatrician recommended diaper rash ointment, then you know the distinctive scent. I don't know how to describe it. Sweet? Slightly plastic? Creamy? I fail to describe it accurately, probably because it is one of those scents that is used to describe other scents.

Anyway, I left my house to walk and pick up Ansley from school yesterday and noticed a heavy scent in the air. Usually it is the smell of horse manure, so I try not to breath through my nose. The horse manure is from the neighboring horse ranches. Having a horse ranch nearby gives a nice sense of quaint country ambiance, at least until there is a slight breeze that wafts the scent of horse poo into the yard.

But I managed to detect that today's scent was not horse manure. The first descriptor that came to my mind was Desitin. Yes, it reminded me of that certain brand of diaper rash ointment.

I thought of Sherman, Texas, where it was impossible to escape the smell of mayonnaise in the air. Thankfully, in the nineties, the local mayo plant closed so the air is a little clearer.

Was there a Desitin plant opening up in Northeast Plano?

No. Down the street, the smell stopped. I didn't pick it up again until I had come back home and was standing in my own front yard again.

It was a mystery.

At least until I looked around. And noticed all the hundreds of thousands of little white blooms all over the bradford pear trees in our front yard and the two yards across the street. I noticed it was the highest concentration of bradford pear trees between here and the elementary school.

Mystery solved.

And I'm curious. Is there anyone else out there who thinks bradford pear blossoms smell like Desitin?