On hot summer days we would use the garden hose to wet down the concrete driveway to play in, and for some reason the smell of water on very sun-warmed concrete was a very specific childhood in summer smell.
What about 40 year old smells?
I smell Sanfransico on people at the airport or things that come from there…
I haven’t been there since I was 2 years old…1968…I smell the snails.
One other smell that has been notorious to me is a 1965/66 Thunderbird…the one with all the chrome…every time I see one they all still smell like 1965/66 (even after being redone)…
My Grand Parents had one the year I was born.
These 2 smells are entrench in my memory to date…
I can’t recall the smells unless I have contact with whatever chemical molecules contact whatever receptor neurons.
:dubious:
She was. They were my parents. She remarried, then died in 2000.
Ooof. We need a pregnant pause emoticon.
When I was 5, our family was moving; things that had totally been Permanent Fixtures were being taken away and put into boxes and everyone was kind of busy and impatient with me. We had a cat, normally well-behaved but who also got confused and upset and did something he never did, pee on the floor, in the back closet, where I found the puddle.
Whenever I smell concentrated smell of cat pee, it’s the smell of confusion and things being taken away and everything is bad and ominous, even down to the cat behaving badly, and I am 5 again.
Okay, this is going to sound a bit weird. When I was in junior high, I had a pet rat who was the first pet I had that was mine exclusively. He had an odor that was sort of a combination of rat pee, cedar shavings, and rat musk. Throughout my day at school and other times when I was away from him, I would get a whiff of his scent. Since he died, though, I can’t really “smell” his scent like I did when he was alive. It was an actual sensory experience, like he was in front of me, not just a memory.
Just recently I had a chance to sniff the same perfume I used to wear in high school, and boy howdy, did that take me back! All of a sudden I was 16 again, nervously tugging down the hemline of my micro mini-skirt, wondering if Johnny would ask me to the prom…And I sniffed another perfume that my mother used to wear, that conjured up stilettos, pencil skirt, white gloves, and a pillbox hat… The scent of Juicy Fruit gum is a tiny trip back in time, too - riding (without seatbelts!) in the big old station wagon on the way to grandma’s.
You asked. 
rucciface, I can conjur that cafeteria smell. As a smell, it is neither good nor bad, but it does not engender happy feelings. It makes me vaguely anxious and sad.
“Off” insect repellent, worms, and fish slime – the utmost carefree childhood happiness of fishing in the lake at my cousins’ farm
Every once in a while, I’ll get a whiff of diesel exhaust combined with charcoal grill – Olangapo City in the Philippines
I have lots of memory triggers associated with perfume. Love’s Fresh Lemon – junior high, making out with Tommy Kirk (he was in high school!) at a friend’s party. That’s a smell I can conjur in my memory, too.
I remember what ether smells like, and the only time I’ve ever smelled ether was when I had my tonsils out. That was 56 years ago.
And I remember the smell of a room in the YMCA in downtown St. Louis, from 1965.
The smell of mothballs evokes the memory of my first day in boot camp, over 20 years ago. It wasn’t a happy day.
Our brand-new uniforms had that smell all over them, and it was the first time I had smelled it, since my mom never used mothballs in my house.
The smell of diesel engines reminds me of back in my twenties when I hitchhiked across the country.
Old Spice aftershave reminds me of my Dad.
O my yes.
Boxwood transports me back to Grandmother’s house.
Crayola brand crayons take me back to childhood, and they do this so well for many other people that I have kept a box around the house just for treating people to the feeling.
And patchouli absolutely sends me - bringing back the sweetest and richest memories of a beautiful smiling girl with long hair and a long hippie style dress trotting toward me in the sunshine, filling me with inexpressible longing.
This last one is painful, too, very bittersweet, because as an intellectual matter I am completely certain that this experience never happened to me, no matter how much I wish the memory was real. God dammit.
My memory trigger from thirty years ago is also from perfume. It originates from my first kiss, it was a magical moment for me and I’ll never forget the scent. Occasionally when I’m in the mall or a department store I’ll get a whiff of that scent and I am immediately transported back in time.
I have no idea what the name of it is, I’ve been so tempted to ask the woman who is wearing it what the name of it is but I’m afraid of getting slapped.
I have the same problem, every time I open a can of tuna, for some reason I think of an old girlfriend I used to have.
Cut grass and gasoline on a hot day take me back to my teen years. It’s like I’m back mowing the lawn. The smell of a garage does it too, since I haven’t had a garage since I was 18. Or mown any lawns for that matter. The smell of Tamiya-brand model paints is distinctive takes me back as well. Specifically, it brings up the memory of sitting in front of the air hockey table in the basement of my first house, looking through Tamiya paint and model catalogs. I think I used a red American Tourister suitcase for a stool.
Perfumes really evoke memories for me. I was in drugstore recently and came across a package of Love’s Baby Soft. Oh. My. Gosh. One whiff and I was back in Junior High, suddenly worried about makeup, if my pegged acid washed jeans were cool enough, if Tim would talk to me on the bus. My mother has worn Shalimar nearly every day of her life and if I smell it somewhere I remember being little and burying my head in her hair when I was upset or scared.
My grandma still lives in the same house since my dad was born (1949) and these days she’s barely “with us”, as she suffers from late stage dementia. However when I go to visit her and the sadness of her condition is overwhelming to me, one smell of her house brings me back to such happy, joyful memories of being with her in her better years when she was the kindest, most generous, gentle, and loving person I could ever imagine knowing.
That sounds like an unforgettable experience. Have you considered a thread on that? I know it’s not a safe thing now: but my mom did a lot of hitchhiking when she was younger and had some interesting stories.
My best friend in high school got me hooked on that, and I still wear it to this day. My daughter wears it now, too. She has to be careful, though: she tends to marinate in it, and that’s a whole totally different smell altogether.
I’ll occasionally smell my elementary school (circa 1965) when I catch a whiff of a certain combination of what’s apparently industrial floor cleaner and cooking creamed chicken and biscuits.
You’ve apparently conflated two memories – Snow White was released in December 1937, so the first summer during which you could have seen it was 1938’s.
The smell of salt water - reminds me of growing up near the Gulf of Mexico during my formative years. I have had the chance to hit several other beaches, but none invoke the same memories as the smell of the Gulf of Mexico.
Not even Galveston. Ewwww. But this was during the 70’s oil industry.