"A Scent of History"

[59Lark]

is it decay or fermentation or the passing of an era.

Paisley this smell you speak of, as a child I grew up in a 1867 25 room farm house in the very room that my late father had as a child, even the same brass bed.The smell of age, hung over the house like a curtain, when i go to a museum house or really old house the smell is one that i remember well. The libary had about two thousand books and a map on one wall with the words unexplored territory on the top. The small apartment that my grandmother occuppied till 1958 was sealed till my father died in 1972. This explains a lot about my warped childhood and my lost in time and space, but i am harmless no physco here but a tired worn out businessman yearning for peace and quiet and no more bills. But as i wear my fedora and drive my studebaker and listen to swing, all the pain of living today leaves even if its momentarily. My basement workshop has become the dinsaur laur the house was with its own odour of machinery and cats. 59LARKfftopic:

 

[I'mSuzyParker]

What a great thread.

We live in an old house and have hot water (radiators) heat and there is an "old-fashioned" smell that comes from that. Everyone loves our house in the winter and says it smells cozy..

Arpege/Youth Dew perfumes

homemade soup/stew in the winter or charcoal BBQ smells in the summer

fresh baked bread

Johnson & Johnson Baby Soap and Baby Powder

and not vintage, but one of my favorite "memory" smells. Coppertone Suntan Oil. Wow. .one whiff and I am 6 years old again

 

[lagunie]

In Los Angeles, when I was a child we would get the winds from the desert which are known as the Santa Anas. They would sweep the city clean of smog and as they came down through the canyons take with them the scent of sage. I always immediately go back to that time when I smell sage. Now I live by the ocean and there are days when you can smell it. I have never been able to identify just what exactly the scent that it carries is; sea salt, fish, kelp? Trying to break down the scent doesn't make it enticing but it is one of the most beautiful in the world.

And strangely, when the Santa Anas blow now they bring the smog to the ocean and our usually clean air has the scent of pollution and there is a red/orange line above the ocean on the horizon. The sage seems to have gone from the Los Angeles hillside replaced by housing.

 

[J.J. Gittes]

Langunie: On some days, you still get that clean smell of no smog or pollution, nothing like it!

For me its:
Old Books
Burning wood
musty typewriter smell !!!!
Clubman aftershave
Vitalis
Old Car Exhaust
Wood varnish
Old wooden drawers(they have a peticular smell)
Cigar and Tobacco Smoke

 

[Warbaby]

For me, the main fragrances of personal history and nostalgia are:

Old (1920s-30s) Magazines
Coal-burning Fireplaces
Kerosene Lamps
Freshly turned earth
My grandfather's pipe tobacco
My father's Chesterfield cigarettes
Crop dusters spraying Malthion
Rain, after a long dry spell

 

[raiderrescuer]

I went to the Tillamook Naval Air Museum this weekend and oddly enough found myself attracted to the smell of the WW2 Canvas Tent display.
I guess the Musky smell reminded me of my old Air Force days.

 

[just_me]

Freshly baked bagels. My father worked the night shift and when he'd come home early in the morning, he'd stop at the bagel bakery and pick up a dozen fresh bagels. I could smell them when he came into the house.

The smell of the ocean - I grew up in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn and sometimes the smell of the ocean would waft over my neighborhood.

 

[Tiller]

I'd have to agree with the general opinion of Pipe Tobacco. Anytime I am at a party, or in public, and I enjoy a bowl I have people telling me how the smell reminds them of their Father or Grandfather.

Even the less informed of my generation (I am of the ripe old age of 23) say they love the smell. I've discovered once you get past the childish "Hi Grandpa", or "Professor" comments from thr small minds of a group everyone else's interest begins to peak. No doubt in large part due to the fine smells of good Tobacco.

It's been my experience that ladies in particular are interested in the smell. Even the none Aromatic types (I rarely smoke Aromatics).

 

[Heather]

Pinaud Clubman Talc. Love that smell of an old Barber's shop. I have the after shave.

I use this on my male clients after a hair cut (i'm a cosmetology student) and I've always loved the smell of this! For some reason its always reminded me of my Dad.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

My wife's CK Escape and her hair
Old Spice
Wood smoke
Gas and oil (the motorhead in me)
Gunpowder (the reenactor in me)
Canvas web gear (same as above)
Old leather books
Cherry pipe tobacco
My cats (some of them)
.....and napalm in the morning (sometimes)....
Rob

 

[Warbaby]

One more that I overlooked: The Outhouse

 

[Lefty]

Pinaud Clubman Talc. Love that smell of an old Barber's shop.

:arated:

 

[miss_smith]

I think for me it is that really sweet smell of cigars. I remember my grandfather smoked them, although I met him only once.
Another is a gardenia perfume I recently bought, and rose-scented soaps are very much my grandma.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Clothes washed in Fels-Naptha and hung out to dry on the line. To me, that's what *clean* smells like.

Popcorn fumes, and not the kind that the big chain theatres buy in spray cans. The real stuff, freshly popped each night. That's what it used to smell like at the Colonial Theatre when I went to the movies on Saturday, and now it's what work smells like every night.

 

[Fletch]

I went to the Tillamook Naval Air Museum this weekend and oddly enough found myself attracted to the smell of the WW2 Canvas Tent display.
I guess the Musky smell reminded me of my old Air Force days.

Those tents have a scent all their own. I remember it from the Army ROTC exhibits every spring at Iowa State. It was always a bit of a letdown to get inside the tent and find there was nothing but a table full of brochures, a bunch of pictures, and maybe a dummy rocket.

 

[Old School QD]

My grandparents house in Kirkland Lake, Ontario had a nice smell in the 1980's. Sometimes I run across the same smell and am reminded of their old living room.

Check off another lover of pipe tobacco. I have a bag sitting in the drawer of my desk right now. I don't smoke it, but bought it expressly for the aroma. Each time I open the drawer I inhale a little bit longer. An unlit cigar is nice, but that's where I draw the line. Cigarettes are a turn-off.

Wood smoke is the ultimate. I love when someone in the neighbourhood lights up the fireplace. Wood iteself has a vintage smell. Combine that with leather, and stick them both in a car and you've got a winning combination.

Gasoline and diesel fumes, in moderation but then I'm a bit of a gearhead with oil-stained coveralls to show for it. Barber talc is also a nice treat when getting a trim. And musty books top off the list. There's nothing like opening the pages of a book that hasn't seen daylight in years.

 

[kampkatz]

My father smoked a pipe with Borkum Riff tobacco. My mother cleaned the
kitchen floor with pine sol. Those aromas bring me back 50 years.

 

[Lensmaster]

My grandparents bought a farm in the 30's and lived there until it was sold in the 80's. The house was actually built in the 1800's and only heating it ever had was a wood burning stove in the central room. My grandfather would cut wood every fall to last through winter. The whole house was filled with the smell of the tar that burning wood left on the chimney going up through the center of the house. Every once in a while I catch a smell that reminds me of those vacations on the farm.

 

[PeterB]

I would have to agree with just about all the above: pipe smoke, leaded gasoline, kerosene from stoves in our rooms during the winter, and furniture polish -- that is one that I really haven't smelled for a long time. In Canada, bonfires, because in Victoria they are illegal now. Also old stone floors had a certain aroma.

 

[EliasRDA]

Used to love Old Spice, hate it now. Truly truly hate it.
And hate the chicken manure smell, I can tolerate horse & cow, but not that ammonia smell of chicken, yuck.

Love wood smoke, we had an fireplace in our old house that was built in the mid 1800's, our current 1980's woodstove is near but not the same. I go out into the back woods sometimes & start a small fire just for the smell. But have to be careful as DE has banned the majority of open burns & burn barrels.
The smell of heating oil, weird yes but to me better than kerosene.

The sea, I grew up in southeastern CT, about 200 ft from the water. We had UConns marine research labs next to us & a old time lobster shack behind us, summer days spent laying on the docks catching shiners to feed to my pet lobster in her seawater tank. And the lobster shack did have a outhouse, I could stand it better than the bait barrels for the lobster traps but then again my dad used to take my brother & I lobstering so it all blends together.

An electric/thunderstorm on a warm summer day, either by the sea or at my pine woods, nothing smells quite like that to me.

Lavender bushes, I used to build my fort under our old bushes. And it was great until the bees started moving among the flowers, I wonder somedays if that's where my current allergies come from. 8-/

And finally, an undescribable smell of old southeastern CT. A mix of the sea & the agri area more inland.