Old smells, that immeditately transport you back in time?

[DavidJ]

Engine oil. My dad used to work on black hawk helicopters and would have an overwhelming scent of it. I remember him coming home and greeting everyone when I smell it.

 

[Gene]

Ivory soap. Grandma washed everything with it, and even saved the small pieces (I guess she thought she would melt them down one day to form one huge bar of soap?) Depression-era mentality for ya...

 

[LoveMyHats2]

The question regarding smells that may make you think of things...could get a person in trouble...(too many chili beans)...but on a serious note, I think when there are Christmas Trees for sale and I pass by them and smell that tree smell, it reminds me of when I was very little, my Great Grandpa would cut trees and also make ornaments from the trees to hang on doors and such for Christmas.

 

[PADDY]

My neighbour burning leaves and old wood in the garden - smells of Autumn/Fall.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

My neighbour burning leaves and old wood in the garden - smells of Autumn/Fall.

Wow, yes, that even makes me think of being a younger lad, and heading out for collecting candy on Halloween.

 

[scottyrocks]

I guess my parents' house. I grew up in it, and the smell, or lack of it, is always there. It doesn't actually have a smell, per se, because you could eat of my mom's floors, but there is a certain 'scent,' I guess, that partly defines their house.

 

[TidiousTed]

For some reason the smell of soda powder (the type you mixed in ice cold water to make a soda like drink)particularle the one tasting raspberries

And smells that reminds me of my grand aunt Augusta's kitchen (we were there every easter when I was a small kid and she was always baking something and whatever it was it tasted heavenly)

 

[W-D Forties]

The smell of the coal hole - smokeless fuel. Sounds weird, but when I was little and used to stay at my grandma's I used to play there, it was my 'house' as she lived in a post war tenament and had no garden. The coal had long gone (obviously!), but the smell remained.

 

[W-D Forties]

Gin - back in the fraternity days I over indulged on gin and slivovitz. My "brothers" stood me up between my mother's screen door and main front door, rang the bell, and ran. First and only night I ever spent in a bathtub.

Gin will never, ever touch my lips.

Southern Comfort - for exactly the same reason. Everytime I smell it now I want to heave!

 

[Cricket]

There is an old department store from the 1800s still in operation in town. As you even approach it, it has this leather-like, smell to it, I can't explain it but I love to sit there and inhale it while I am there. (which could explain my large ticket at the front).

 

[B-17 Pilot]

. . .in 1955 I had my first ride in a DC-3, and I distinctly remember the smell in that plane that is totally unique! Only very occasionally do I run across that smell, and still have no idea where it eminates from! Perhaps a stewardess. . .or the cleaning agent they used on the seats. Very strange, but thought Id' share it!

Mike

 

[Blackjack]

wax lips at halloween....

 

[kyboots]

wax lips at halloween....

OMG that is a good one!---John

 

[rue]

Real candlelit jack-o'-lanterns

 

[Old Rogue]

Honeysuckle in the springtime. Immediately takes me back to my childhood in the 60's.

 

[flat-top]

Wet wool. Actually HOT wet wool. Reminds me of my wet mittens and hats after playing in the snow when I was little, and then my mom drying them on the radiator. I smell it now when I iron my wool pants.

 

[PADDY]

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...

 

[Nathan Dodge]

My wife recently bought Dove Bar soap (white) and the scent immediately reminded me of my grandparents' house, circa 1977. Interesting how Dove has a rose-like scent to it...

 

[LizzieMaine]

The smell of low tide always reminds me of being six years old, running along the clam flats and stomping the beach to make them squirt.

 

[scottyrocks]

Ammens powder, if it still exists, reminds me of my childhood. I always preferred Johnson's Baby Powder, but my family used Ammens.