Old smells, that immeditately transport you back in time?

[St.Ignatz]

Garden shed with the faint smell of gasoline and grass fermenting under the lawnmower deck takes me to my grandfather's in the 50's. It just brings a unique tranquility to the afternoon.
Tom D .

 

[Hurricane Jack]

The smell of new tires always takes me back to Christmas time. As a young boy growing up our little town didn't have a toy store of any kind. The "dime store" had a few small toys but that was it. As Christmas season approached the Firestone Tire store would stock toys to sell to Christmas shoppers. Besides train sets they always had toys made from stamped steel such as auto garages & gasoline stations, tin cars, Tonka trucks & cranes. To this day I associate the smell of new tires to that Firestone store & the Christmas season's of my childhood.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Byyyyyyy------Mennen!"

Whomever of the "Boys from Marketing" came up with that tag line earned his pay that day - it stuck in your head.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My grandfather never smelled like anything but gasoline. I remember being very disoriented when they had him laid out in the box at the funeral home, and it took me a minute to realize what was wrong. It didn't smell like him. And to this day whenever I fill my tank, it's like he's back for a visit.

 

[MisterCairo]

Play Doh.
Elmer's glue.
Brylcreem.
Root beer.
Brasso.
Gasoline.
Fresh cut grass.
Creosote.
Old books.

Each will bring back a flood of memories.

If they still had "ditto" copiers, the fluid's smell would bring even more.

 

[Harp]

Play Doh. Brasso...

...C-4 plastic explosive, wrapped around dynamite and dual ignition off fuse ignitors/blasting caps-playdoh. A distinctly deadly smell.
And Brasso for cleaning uniform brass insignia, smelled from the can clears the brain cells....

 

[2jakes]

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Army supply rooms had a distinct smell. Sometimes you can catch a bit of it in an army surplus store.

 

[M Hatman]

Old books........have that certain vintage smell that really brings back many fond memories......
M

 

[2jakes]

Burnt toast = my dad when he made breakfast because ma wasn't feeling well.

Moth balls = my Aunt Mim's house.

Homemade popcorn = Saturday matinee theaters.

Original Old Spice = first time I shaved.
Boy did that stuff burn.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Believe it or not but the smell of creosote or tar takes me back to when I was no older than 5 and lived in Key Largo, Florida and the sock behind our house was made from creosote soaked logs to withstand insects and the salt water of Florida Bay.

 

[green papaya]

The smell of Hobos fresh off the rails, they smelled of urine, sweat, vomit, alcohol, very dirty, they use to really smell back then, probably never bathed, maybe once in a while they would take a bath in the river in the summertime.

The smell of a field of cattle, the urine, the fresh smell of the cow manure, the grass, the stacks of hay/ alfalfa, because I use to go fishing a lot as a kid and remember the smell of the cattle, sometimes we had to walk right next to them , and a bull would chase me, and I had to run for my life.

the smell of diesel exhaust reminds me of the school bus smell, memories of riding the school bus on a hot day with the smell of the diesel fumes, especially with the windows rolled down.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The first time I ever walked into Fenway Park I was nearly knocked over by the overwhelming stink of BO, cigar smoke, and stale urine. That's what ballparks smelled like in those days, but it's been cleaned up considerably in the decades since. It still has a distinctive odor, but it's not particularly unpleasant -- kind of a damp concrete smell.

 

[Fading Fast]

The first time I ever walked into Fenway Park I was nearly knocked over by the overwhelming stink of BO, cigar smoke, and stale urine. That's what ballparks smelled like in those days, but it's been cleaned up considerably in the decades since. It still has a distinctive odor, but it's not particularly unpleasant -- kind of a damp concrete smell.

I know that smell from Fenway well. New Yankee Stadium is so open aired (versus the old one or Fenway, both with all their catacombs) that unless you get unfortunately seated next to the wrong person, you only smell the different foods periodically. Late in the game, if enough has been spilled in a concentrated way near you, you will get a beer smell. I went to the new Yankee stadium right after it opened and it actually smelled new - can't quite define it, but it was the smell of fresh materials. That's faded to no smell now owing to, again, the incredible open "airness" of it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The only ballpark I've ever been in that didn't actually smell like a ballpark was Olympic Stadium in Montreal, which no matter where you sat, always smelled like a parking garage.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Perfumes that were once employed by former girlfriends or female associates. I can be on a subway train, take a whiff.. and the image of a particular face is immediately on my mind. Decades after the fact.

Seconded. I say there are two types of perfumes: musk, and everything else.

I've read that part of the reason smell is such a strong sense is -- besides the poster who pointed out above that it goes to the primitive part of our brains -- is that it's the only sense that contacts our nervous systems directly. The nose is the only point where our nervous systems are open to the environment. The other senses are filtered somewhat through receptors before they get to the nervous system.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've never been able to stand the smell of strong perfume -- I'm not allergic to it, I just ferociously dislike it. It reminds me of those suffocating old ladies at church who smelled like what my grandfather delicately described as "a French cathouse."

My grandmother always smelled like Fels Naptha, and when I wash my clothes I always think she's in the room with me.

 

[2jakes]

I've never been able to stand the smell of strong perfume -- I'm not allergic to it, I just ferociously dislike it. It reminds me of those suffocating old ladies at church who smelled like what my grandfather delicately described as "a French cathouse."

Made worse when applied to cover-up for not bathing!

 

[Trenchfriend]

Floor-polish/"Bohnerwachs", smelling severve like onion-sausage or "Knize Ten", petroleum, gas or whatever...

 

[green papaya]

the Old Butcher shop smells

the smell of dry Salami hanging on a string, the sound of the saw while they cut the meat

the butcher shop use to have saw dust all over the floor for easy clean up, I remember the smell and sliding through the thick saw dust all over the floor, this was behind the counter for the workers, but I was allowed to go back there as a child

and they would give me a free hot dog [cold]