Old smells, that immeditately transport you back in time?

[PADDY]

I'm currently (ie; five mins ago!) creosoting some joists of wood, and as soon as the smell of the creosote hit me, it took me back to childhood and my Uncle James out in the country painting the fence!

Also (I seem to be on a roll on this one![huh] )...I have a couple of old 1970's green slug army sleeping bags which I now throw on the floor for the dogs to curl up on (they love em!!).
Every so often (like last night) I give them a good shake and puff them up for the dogs, and the smell of the bag (old army sweats will understand) just takes me back to times lying out in the bag or being a various barrack blocks.

Cut the grass the other day and the smell of the freshly mown grass and the sun beating down always takes me back to a moment in time playing cricket at school during the summer term...ahhhh, good days

Walking into an old school (the ones that still have the old wooden floorboards and wax polished floor tiles, and the old cast iron radiators), well...that smell just throws me back to school days.

Your turn....

 

[Flivver]

No surprise...I used to love the smell of leaded gasoline! Modern gasoline just doesn't have the same aroma.

That good old "new car smell" just doesn't seem the same anymore either.

 

[Sweet Polly Purebred]

Books. The scent of old weathered, worn, well read, cherished books. Something in the aromas of the inks, parchments, and leather bindings just send me.

 

[Atticus Finch]

Hi Folks,

Just a whiff of a saltwater marsh instantly transports me back to my days growing up on the decks of trawlers in Beaufort, North Carolina. The smell of a two-stroke outboard engine does exactly the same thing.

The smell of a diesel city bus reminds me of the summer I was in London. While we were there, I had to depend on public transportation for the first time in my life. We spent more than a few hours at the city's bus stops before we were finally able to master the system.

The smell of cut, dried cornstalks in early September always reminds me of early the autumn bird hunts I attended when I was a brand new prosecutor and living in the northern piedmont of our state.

Courtrooms in old courthouses all have a certain smell. I can't really describe it, but anyone who has been in a one-hundred-year-old courtroom will know what I'm talking about. I don't much notice it now, but in a couple of decades when I'm long retired, I'm sure that a breath of that old courtroom smell will take me back to now.

Atticus

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Certain perfumes take me back to certain times in my life. I've actually SAVED all my old perfume bottles with little bits of perfume still in them just for nostalgia.

I remember learning in my psychology class that smell is the one sense that is most connected to memory.

 

[Technonut]

When I smell Honeysuckles, it takes me back to my Grandparent's house as a child... On the same note, the smell of "real" Italian gravy simmering takes me there too...

 

[warbird]

I love the smell of old leather and cigars. They both make me think of times with what was my very large older family of aunts and uncles.

 

[Midnight Palace]

For me, it's that "basement" smell. I think it's because my grandfather used to have all of his tools in the basement, and many of his tools were from the 40s.

 

[Nashoba]

Opium perfume. My grandmother wore it every day and it's one of the few perfumes I instantly recognize.

 

[warbird]

I have also noticed that certain smells and sounds make me long for days gone by and make me yearn for other smells. I grew up racing motorcycles. I'll catch a whiff every once in a while of something that makes me miss the the sound of the revving 2 stroke engine and the smell of burning castor oil. It takes me back to really fun times and bad wrecks. Takes me back to spending time with my dad rebuilding and working on the bikes in the shop.

I also very much miss the sound and smell of radial aircraft engines, DC-3's, Beech 18's and D Beavers, in my experience mainly but other aircraft as well. Nothing in the world sounds like that and nothing smells like that oil, which collects in the bottom cylinders while sitting, being burned off. I also loved the sound of them starting. That old inertial starter, electric of course (I'm not winding anything), letting go and winding out and the initial burp of the engine. This takes me back to times with my college roommate and our adventures during and then after college. They take me back to searching for old warbirds and participating in rebuilding them. They take me back to flying off the Florida coast with my dad looking for where the schools were running and then heading back, hopping in the boat and going fishing.

Many of these memories seem to be triggered by engine related things don't they. Oh well, I guess they have been a big part of my life.

 

[Gilbey]

When I was in London town, the musty smell of the old buildings had that familiar scent that transported me back to my grandfather's house.

 

[Spitfire]

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.

Sometimes the smell of jeans in stacks, especially levis, lee or wrangler - not designerjeans - also brings back memories of my first pair of jeans. Also in 1956.
I still remember the shop in Copenhagen, who had them first. (Troelstrup - for the danes) and how it smelled on the 3. floor where thay had all the thick, darkblue, heavy jeans stacked.
That was before torn, cloride, stonewash etc. etc. You had to break them in youself. In the bathtub with soap and a brush!

 

[Gilbey]

Whenever I taste a hot Coke (for some strange reason it was not cooled)

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

 

[Zig2k143]

The smell of Gas reminds me of my grandfather's old gas station.

He had it for 65 years and it was actually open years after the gas tanks were removed. All the old people would go there and just sit around and talk all day long. It was a great place.

 

[Micawber]

The aroma of Youngs 303, boiled linseed oil and wet Labradors remind me of happy days out in the field.

 

[PastimeSteve]

Blooming Magnolias. Reminds me of my childhood in Louisiana.

 

[Harp]

Courtrooms in old courthouses all have a certain smell. I can't really describe it, but anyone who has been in a one-hundred-year-old courtroom will know what I'm talking about. I don't much notice it now, but in a couple of decades when I'm long retired, I'm sure that a breath of that old courtroom smell will take me back to now.
Atticus

When I was in law school, I read horn books and delved inside my
local library's law stacks held for the courthouse across the street.
Some of the older Illinois Reports hadn't been opened in decades
and the musty smell tinged with a sense of the past lingers in memory.

 

[Spitfire]

Really opened the gate to memory lane there Paddy.

I had a most fantastic, loving and caring grandmother, who passed away when I was 17.
I had two "smell-memories" of her.
The first was everytime - uptill a few years ago - when I opened the door to the house she owned - a small 8 flat building - the smell of that house brought back memories. Not only of her but of my childhood, where I lived with my parents in one of the flats.

Another memory I still got, is an old coffetin, my grandmother used to keep nails, bolts etc in. In order to keep them free from rust, she had pored some oil in. I still got that tin. It's empty now. And dry. But everytime I open it, I can smell the metal, steel and oil. And it brings me straight back to my grandmothers summercabin by the coast, where she keept it.

Two years ago I went to see my old neighbourhood, where I grew up.
When I came to my grandmothers house, the front and side was still standing. But the rest was torn down.
I could still open the front door, the stairs were still there - at least to the first floor....and the smell was still there too.
That was the last time I smelled that house. I's gone now and some new modern buildings has taken its place. Now I only have the coffetin, taht smells of metal and oil.

Sorry it got a bit long - I got carried away

 

[panamag8or]

For me, whiskey and roasted peanuts take me back to Gator games as a kid. Fortunately, I still get to experience that smell 7 times a year.

Also, Diesel fumes make me think of the school bus.

 

[TheKitschGoth]

Certain makeup makes me think of my mum. I now actively look for makeup with that smell.