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Old smells, that immeditately transport you back in time?

LoveMyHats2

I’ll Lock Up.
Messages
5,196
Location
Michigan
Wet wool, the rough stuff such as walking socks and jumpers and hats with the lanolin, (as with Flattop), drying on radiators takes me back to think of the military and times I was cold and wet, and drying my stuff in 'hot rooms' at barracks. Just the smell of it now when I've come back from the hills with soggy woollens...

That really hits home for me, as well.
 

fortworthgal

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,646
Location
Panther City
Livestock manure. I grew up in the country and that "barn" smell always reminds me of my childhood. I know it is an odd scent that disgusts most people, but it is a definite "comfort" scent for me.

Scotch tape - reminds me of wrapping presents around Christmas.

White Rain hairspray - reminds me of high school and gigantic hair.
 

LoveMyHats2

I’ll Lock Up.
Messages
5,196
Location
Michigan
Livestock manure. I grew up in the country and that "barn" smell always reminds me of my childhood. I know it is an odd scent that disgusts most people, but it is a definite "comfort" scent for me.

Scotch tape - reminds me of wrapping presents around Christmas.

White Rain hairspray - reminds me of high school and gigantic hair.

I had a school teacher that used the hairspray and at times she would put some sort of light purple colors on her hair! It was O.K. however, she was fairly old but was a very sweet old gal!
 

Mr Vim

One Too Many
Messages
1,306
Location
Juneau, Alaska
I have on my desk my grandfather's old pipe stand. It is a glass jar with the tobacco pouch still in it and there is a corn cob pipe in the holder. Every once in a while I will open the jar and the smallest whiff of cherry tobacco will permeate the air.

Also the smell of the sea, that gregarious smack of salt and brine that just sticks in the air makes me think of times when my family would journey to the San Fransisco piers on weekends when I was a sprat.

And finally, the smell of any library, that hint of an almost marsh like decay of old paper, like the wrappings of mummies sealed away in dust laden tombs, for an eternity or two.

Sorry I'm in a Bradbury mood today.
 

PADDY

I'll Lock Up
Bartender
Messages
7,425
Location
METROPOLIS OF EUROPA
Currently - the smell of old leaves & dead wood being burned in the Autumn garden. The last scent of the hedges being cut before winter sets in. The skin of the apples and pears on my hand, as I harvest them (before the dog's do!). The wood and coal in the fireplace at night keeping the chill at bay.
All takes me back to earlier times and people in the memories of my past.
 

Nathan Dodge

One Too Many
Messages
1,051
Location
Near Miami
mom's fried chicken , the smell would fill the house

reminds me of childhood, fried chicken dinners were my favorite and she always made it on my birthday

On a similar note, I remember being about ten, and walking up the driveway on a late Summer afternoon and hearing the mighty roar of french fries being dropped into our deep fryer.
 

Marzena

One of the Regulars
Messages
127
Location
Poland
Not so much the smell - but the taste of a warm Coke, brings me back to summer of 1956, when I tasted my first Coca Cola. It was summer and it was in Sweden. My parents and I was on a weekend outing in Sweden by car. My father had just returned from his fist ever trip to USA, where he had tasted Coke for the first time. You could not get it in Denmark then, but in Sweden!!! Oh yes!
Whenever I taste a hot Coke (for some strange reason it was not cooled) I am brought back to that swedish restaurant by the lake in the sun.
Oh dear! Same Coca Cola association. It was in Bulgaria in 1965 or so. Coca Cola was still banned in Poland as the imperialist drink poisoned with phosphoric acid that would rot your teeth. But in Bulgaria for some reason Coca Cola was OK. Every time I smell it today I have a rush of memories of that thirsty afternoon in the camping site by the Black Sea with its associated smells of canvas tents baking in the sun, the pine trees, the dusty ground and the cooking with sunflower oil on dozens of gasoline stoves.
 

LoveMyHats2

I’ll Lock Up.
Messages
5,196
Location
Michigan
I don't know why, but there is always the same "smell" when you are attending a funeral. It always makes me think of all the ones before and is a sad thought...and after I leave a funeral home, I often wondered what all makes that smell be the same?
 

Stormy

A-List Customer
Messages
403
Location
460 Laverne Terrace
Many scents take me back! Ironically, I was just thinking about this the other day after I caught a whiff of Chanel #5. Other nostalgic aromas for me are Noxema, aspirin, Vicks vapor rub, straw hats, Jergens lotion, my mom's (RIP) jewelry box, and home baked pies.
 

Wally_Hood

One Too Many
Messages
1,772
Location
Screwy, bally hooey Hollywood
My dad smoked a pipe and cigars many years ago. The smell of a pipe, especially, brings back memories.

In a sort of parallel experience, the family was visiting Sea World and I was taking a break sitting on a curb, smoking my pipe, when an older lady dashed over to me, took a deep breath of the pipe smoke, and smiled as she told me her late husband used to smoke a pipe and she missed the smell.
 

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