The Nabisco plant is a relic of a great reordering of the American economy after World War II: the migration of manufacturing from cities to the suburbs and beyond. From the air, on flights into Newark, the sight of the plant’s tower, or its big red neon NABISCO sign in sans serif capital letters, is a reassuring reminder: I’m almost home. It’s not just the aroma that makes Nabisco a landmark. They were so good that when Kate first noticed the Nabisco smell around the same time, she thought it was Shirley in her kitchen, and her hopes rose. Now Shirley is gone, but whenever Kate smells the plant, she thinks of her. When Kate Makarec moved to Fair Lawn years ago, her older neighbor Shirley Herwig welcomed her with a plate of freshly baked brownies. No matter the season, she says, “whenever I smell Nabisco, I’m back in my childhood backyard, with the bathing suits and towels hanging on the circular clothesline, and my Dad grilling burgers for dinner.’’ To Lisa Meltzer-Press, it’s the smell of summer - intermingled, somehow, with that of chlorine from the town pool. Like the taste of the small madeleine cookies in Proust’s novel, "Remembrance of Things Past," the smell of Nabisco has been a powerful trigger to memories of seasons gone by. The scent, she says, “to this day can lead me down the Proustian rabbit hole.’’ View Gallery: Archive photos of the Nabisco factory in Fair Lawn NJīefore Liz Girvin Marcus steps outside in the morning, she wonders: Will it be a cookie day? She only has to inhale to find out.
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