Old Smells that Make Your Nose Wrinkle

[LizzieMaine]

We've got a long thread about aromas evocative of a nostalgic past -- but how about old-time smells that you're glad are vanishing or gone:

*An old woolen blanket reeking of camphor.

*A congealed mass of chicken fat marinating on the surface of the river on a hot summer day.

*The foul reek of cheap perfume, alcohol, and nicotine wafting past as you walk into a restaurant or bar.

*Burning transformer tar when your rectifier tube shorts out.

*A vapor-locked carburetor.

*The heap of old clam, crab, and lobster shells festering behind your neighbor's kitchen window.

*Burning tires at the town dump.

*Your neighbor burning garbage in an old oil drum in the backyard.

*The sicky-sweet odor of tetraethyl lead issuing from the tailpipe in front of you.

*The gooey-fishy smell of the spoonful of Father John's Medicine your mother is pressing against your firmly-closed lips.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Stinky smell of floor-polish.

 

[ChiTownScion]

We've got a long thread about aromas evocative of a nostalgic past -- but how about old-time smells that you're glad are vanishing or gone:

Start with the rancid, thick air of a commuter railroad Smoking Car.

 

[ChrisB]

The rotten egg smell of the slag heaps in Bethlehem PA.

We once had a dog that liked to kill groundhogs, let them ripen in the sun a few hours, and then joyously roll around in the remains.

 

[Fading Fast]

From offices, to public transport, to indoor arenas, to bars, restaurants, stores and airplanes - no smoking has made the entire world smell better. I'm all for eliminating it in outdoor public places as well. Smoke in your house or your car, but you shouldn't pollute everyone else air, period.

I think we are slowly moving that way as I've now seen in NYC some outdoor areas designated as non-smoking areas.

Separate from all that, as this is just a personal preference, but if I never smelled tunafish again - ever, anywhere, anytime, in any form - my life would be improved. My mom used to eat that stuff and it made me sick to just be in the room with an open can. Again - I am not suggesting any policy or that my opinion is anything more than that, but since we can post opinions, my opinion is that I'd love to never, ever, ever smell tunafish again.

 

[Bushman]

The rotten egg smell of the slag heaps in Bethlehem PA.

Ugh, I can't stand the smell that comes off a grinder let alone slag.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Decomposing radio transcriptions. Something of an occupational hazard for me -- when the cellulose nitrate coating on radio discs begins to chemically break down it offgases a smell that can only be described as the deep interior of a barrel full of rancid, rotten peanuts. The cellar storerooms of old radio stations often reeked of this smell.

 

[vitanola]

The vomit odor of an old tool box filled with Excelite and Craftsman screwdrivers, nut drivers, and chisels.

The rotten egg stench which clears the house when SOMEONE decides to defrost the refrigerator with an ice pick.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Ether. In my youth I got where I could stand a lot of pain if it would keep them from giving me another hit of Ether! Talk about upsetting your stomach if you got too much of a hit!

 

[Fading Fast]

Mothballs. My grandmother and, to a lessor extent, my mom used those things and they stunk. We use some pine chips (or some bags of, I think, lavender) which my girlfriend takes care of and our closets and stored clothes smell a lot better and, other than the one-off, haven't had any moth issues.

 

[ChrisB]

Ether. In my youth I got where I could stand a lot of pain if it would keep them from giving me another hit of Ether! Talk about upsetting your stomach if you got too much of a hit!

I was put under ether once, when I was 7 years old and had my tonsils removed, but it made a lasting impression. Any time I have to use starting fluid , it all comes back to me. I have an MGB, so I always keep some handy.

 

[green papaya]

the smell of decomposing rats in my old house, the floors had holes and the rats lived under the house, sometimes I would open a kitchen drawer and find dead rats with maggots, very similar to the smell of dead bodies / corpses.

the smell of "Hobos" winos, bums that rode the rails into town and lived near the river or railroad tracks, they smelled of "sweat, urine, alcohol" mixed in with body odor, grime and wearing the same dirty clothing for long periods without bathing.

the smell of the Salvation Army store, use to be much worse, smelled so bad I use to gag from the smell of old dirty clothing, shoes, a very old musty , lockeroom, dirty laundry smell.

The smell of portable restrooms at the flea market, even today it's an awful smell, and you can see the waste and flies buzzing around, hasnt changed much

the smell of the local sewage plant just on the other side of the levee, smelled like a strong dirty sewer / septic tank smell.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Cruciferous vegetables being boiled in an unventilated kitchen. Oooweee.

 

[Haversack]

The smell of a mixture of burning diesel oil and human waste. At a boy scout camp in the late 1960s, a daily chore was to pull the two halved oil drums full of ordure out of the plywood seat box, douse them with diesel oil, light the mixture, and stand there stirring it with a long stick until it was burned up. You then went and jumped in the lake wearing the clothes you had on.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A rubber girdle on a hot day.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Some say, that old "Knize Ten" is a great contraceptive. Castoreum in the basenote.

 

[52Styleline]

Creosoted piers and pilings on a hot day.

 

[robrinay]

The oily chemical smell of a polluted river.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The vomit odor of an old tool box filled with Excelite and Craftsman screwdrivers, nut drivers, and chisels.

My tool box still smells like that

 

[HudsonHawk]

The sweet stench of ammonia from the blueprint machine in the drafting office.