Old smells, that immeditately transport you back in time?

[LizzieMaine]

I've always been more of a Silly Putty sniffer, myself.

 

[dnjan]

Burning coal

When I was about 12 we moved into my (deceased) grandparents' house.
Heat came from a coal furnace.

When I was in college, I remember walking through residential neighborhoods and occasionally picking up that same smell.

Haven't smelled that in a long time (which is probably for the better ...)

 

[2jakes]

Like Coop...I lean towards the aroma of Huberd's shoe oil & grease!

 

[Fading Fast]

Like Coop...I lean towards the aroma of Huberd's shoe oil & grease!
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The guy on the far left looks very "college kid '30s" with his suit paired with white bucks and (I'd bet) red soles.

 

[2jakes]

^^^^^^
Collegiate Cooper wearing grey flannel trousers with signature horizontal striped socks, and a fantastic narrow and long, low point shirt.

 

[Fading Fast]

Life had to be a bit easier being Gary Cooper (hence, the song).

 

[Fading Fast]

From Apparel Arts '30s, the cool '30s college "man" sporting white bucks with a red sole:



And, I believe, it became cool to wear scuffed ones in the '50s at college (old money and all, you know). I think this ad ⇩ is for a new, but pre-scuffed, pair. I remember reading that once and believe this is the picture, but couldn't tie the two together in my quick internet search this morning - so I made be wrong:

 

[LizzieMaine]

Life had to be a bit easier being Gary Cooper (hence, the song).

He could walk down the street and not get beat up for wearing eyeliner.

 

[Fading Fast]

He could walk down the street and not get beat up for wearing eyeliner.

Hollywood was always its own odd universe.

 

[Just Jim]

The smell of fresh-cut alfalfa and the dehy plants dominated my summers as a kid--you could smell it even over the chlorine-smell at the swimming pool. Even now, the smell takes me back. . . .

 

[Eamonsieur]

I'm practically a baby around here (27 going on 28) but I remember when the butchers at the wet market used to hang fresh meat out in the open. Every Sunday I would follow my grandpa to the market, and there would be the sickly sweet smell of a fresh pig hanging from large meat hooks. Customers would point at exactly the cut they want, and the butcher would bring it down to slice up exactly that.

Now everything comes pre-packaged in supermarkets, and there is no longer the smell of dried blood in the air. I miss those days.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Formaldehyde...

 

[2jakes]

I have a couple of these cans that still have the contents.
I enjoy the smell which reminds me of the old gas stations from the past.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Great Depression-deco design and color there. You saw that bronze-green and red (or yellow) combination on everything from tractors to cigarette packs. Joh Deere farm equipment retains the bronze-and-yellow of that era.

 

[2jakes]

Great Depression-deco design and color there. You saw that bronze-green and red (or yellow) combination on everything from tractors to cigarette packs. Joh Deere farm equipment retains the bronze-and-yellow of that era.

Sitting inside this 1940s cab with the odor of oil, engine from this truck, transports me back to times spent with my dad when he took me along on a drive in his truck as we traveled the back roads.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a product called "cardan oil" that's used in the spindle drives for film projectors that has an overwhelming strong, bitter petroleum odor -- if you're not ready for it when you open the bottle, it'll knock you over, and it's even stronger when the oil is hot. It's basically the same thing as high-pressure hypoid differential oil, except they charge you more for it.

 

[GHT]

Europeans don't believe in putting ice in their drinks. I often wondered why. Here in America, you always put ice on almost everything.

We like the taste of what we are drinking, you lose that when the sensation is just cold. I had the heretic stupidity to ask a waiter somewhere in Georgia not to pre-chill my glass and just bring me a beer straight from the fridge. The guy freaked: "You like warm beer?" He exclaimed, at that point I stopped digging the hole.

There exists an "old car" smell that is present in original vehicles up to the early 1950s. I have no idea what ingredients of the interior materials combine to make it but my 1950 Packard has it and people at car shows actually stick their heads in the open window in order to inhale the nostalgic aroma. Really.

My early 1950's MG has that old car smell, it's a mix of walnut and leather, both of which have had decades to mature. It's the automobile equivalent to fine wine.

.Grand dad's bike...Is there room for another one on your grand-dad's bike?

My wife's bike is a 1922 Phillips, I love it. You can smell it as soon as you open the door of the shed where it lives. It's only a mild smell, a waft of leather from the saddle mixed with 1920's lubricating oil on the chain.

 

[GHT]

When in Germany I noticed that the people drink beer at room temperature and in England, hot tea.

It's not weird to have likes and dislikes, what is weird is that others simply cannot accept this, you wouldn't believe that people actually have a choice.
When some older fellow asked me if I was in the MG car club, he blew a gasket when I said that I wasn't, demanding to know why.

About six miles off the south coast of England is a small island called The Isle of Wight. (pronounced white) It's a quiet sort of place, no dual carriageway roads, it reminds me of England back in the 1950's. For ten years the company that I ran with my brother, had the contract to deliver pharmaceuticals to outlets on the Island.
Our drivers were all Island based, they would catch a ferry in the morning, collect their day's work and head back and get their work done. When one was on annual leave, my brother or I would cover. One day when I was doing such cover a pharmacist told me that I was so lucky to be delivering to the Island every day. I could never take to the slower pace of life, but I knew that Islanders were sensitive to criticism so I just said that the Isle of Wight was not for me. Good grief, did he kick off at me, demanding to know what was wrong with the Island.

I've experienced this kind of disapproval about not having any children, about choice of politics, even my sister wanted to know why we chose a house that had more bedrooms than we need. It's easy to see why political discussion is kept well away from this forum, and probably most others too. Our referendum to leave The European Union caused so much unrest that there were cases of family members not talking to one another because one had strongly disapproved of the other's choice. And there was me thinking that democracy was all about choice, how naive am I?

 

[3fingers]

I have never understood why people who know they have differing opinions don't either agree to not discuss certain things or simply stay away from each other. I have friends that I know their beliefs differ from mine in some way, but we do not browbeat each other about it. Sleeping dogs are best left that way.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

The smell of wood smoke takes me right back to my great-grandmother's kitchen. Cedar trees and oranges bring to mind every Christmas at my grandparents' house when I was a child. Honeysuckle reminds me of my "brother" (actually a second cousin, but we were raised in the same home like siblings - we also fought like brother and sister ) and I playing outside every summer. And just about every Saturday morning in the summertime I'd wake up to the sounds of neighbors mowing their lawns and the smell of fresh cut grass coming through my bedroom window. All wonderful memories from wonderful times in my life.