Sen-Sen Memories
One interesting thing about having grown up in a different country than the one in which I currently live is the fact that I had a totally different childhood experience from my British friends. Even those who are close to my age grew up playing different games. Granted, some were the same games with different names: while I played checkers and Tic-Tac-Toe the Brits played draughts and Noughts & Crosses, and the American fusbol was identical to the British "table football". But Conkers is uniquely British, whereas the basketball game Horse is obviously an American pastime. As to children's television, my British friends are quite familiar with "The Flintstones", "Bugs Bunny", and "Scooby Doo"; but while I and my American peers grew up on programs like "Rocky and Bullwinkle", "Crusader Rabbit", "Captain Kangaroo", "Engineer Bill", and "Romper Room", British children were watching things like "Bagpuss", "The Clangers", "Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men", and "The Magic Roundabout".
We also grew up in different cultures of sweets. Any Brit considers it normal to get a Flake with one's ice cream, whereas an American would never expect such a garnish. And even though a lot of the chocolate bars were practically identical they were branded differently: Bounty (Mars) vs. Mounds (Hershey's), Marathon vs. Snickers, etc.
But while British kids were getting hyperactive on Kali, Flying Saucers, and boiled sweets, American kids like me were munching Walnettos, Aplets and Cotlets, and salt water taffy.
And then there were, and still are, Sen-Sens. I was reminded of these startling little treats the other night while watching the film The Aviator, where in a 1920s bar scene a cigarette girl offers "cigars, cigarettes, Sen-Sens?" Apparently Sen-Sens never made it across the pond from their birthplace in Rochester, New York, so my British friends missed out on this uniquely wonderful (or horrible) experience.
Sen-Sens are tiny black squares of intensity which come in flat mostly pink foil packets. Developed in the late 1880s by perfume dealers T.B. Dunn & Co., they were first marketed as "breath perfume". The origin of the Japanese-sounding name is unknown, and the ingredients come from all over Europe and Asia.
I was first introduced to Sen-Sens as a teenager when a friend offered one to me. I put it on my tongue and immediately had what's probably a common first reaction: I spit it out and gagged. The taste can best be described as perfumed soap with a vague suggestion of liquorice. But like heroin , sudoku, and Marmite, these little guys are addictive. The next time my friend took out her packet of Sen-Sens I asked for another try, and as quickly as I was revolted by my first taste I fell in love. I couldn't get enough of them. There is something subconsciously nostalgic and indefinably distant and exotic in the overwhelming incense-like atmosphere that fills one's mouth and makes one want to retreat inside one's own oral cavity.
Sen-Sens have been a cultural institution for over a century. When my parents were teenagers doing things teenagers do, they sucked on Sen-Sens to disguise the smell of cigarettes and alcohol on their breath. And for a short time back in California I was in a performance group called the Sen-Sens. So it seems surprising that none of my British friends, young or old, have heard of Sen-Sens. The next time I visit the States I must remember to bring some back home, if only to demonstrate to my British friends just how crazy I really am.
