How Smells Trigger Memories

I know this seems random, but I've recently been very interested in figuring out how smells trigger memories. Over the summer, I went to the beach with E Scream. I had to buy face wash because I'd forgotten mine at home. I stopped at the Rite Aid just before the bridge into Ocean City and bought a Neutrogena Transparent Facial Bar. If you'd asked me, then, to describe the smell, I wouldn't have been able to. I used it the entire week we were there and came home. It's been at least six months since then. I just bought myself another bar yesterday. If you were to ask to me to describe the smell now, I would immediately say "it smells like the beach". Which is not true at all. To you, it might remind you of something totally different-- in-fact, I highly doubt it would remind you of the beach at all. This is a prime example of how smells trigger memories. I got really interested in why that happened, so I decided to do a little bit of research on it.
"A smell can bring on a flood of memories, influence people's moods and even affect their work performance. Because the olfactory bulb is part of the brain's limbic system, an area so closely associated with memory and feeling it's sometimes called the "emotional brain," smell can call up memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously.
The olfactory bulb has intimate access to the amygdala, which processes emotion, and the hippocampus, which is responsible for associative learning. Despite the tight wiring, however, smells would not trigger memories if it weren't for conditioned responses. When you first smell a new scent, you link it to an event, a person, a thing or even a moment. Your brain forges a link between the smell and a memory -- associating the smell of chlorine with summers at the pool or lilies with a funeral. When you encounter the smell again, the link is already there, ready to elicit a memory or a mood. Chlorine might call up a specific pool-related memory or simply make you feel content. Lilies might agitate you without your knowing why. This is part of the reason why not everyone likes the same smells.
Because we encounter most new odors in our youth, smells often call up childhood memories. But we actually begin making associations between smell and emotion before we're even born. Infants who were exposed to alcohol, cigarette smoke or garlic in the womb show a preference for the smells. To them, the smells that might upset other babies seem normal or even comforting."
Source: http://health.howstuffworks.com/smell3.htm
I hope you found that as interesting as I. I'm adding artwork to my next post, so be sure to check it out! Say what?