Department Store at Christmas
Combination of perfume- some from the fragrance counter itself, some from peeps having been sprayed; clothes that smell of the dyes and antiwrinkle chemicals on the garments; the mysterious, undefinable “mall smell” (could be any of a dozen things).
This is so evocative for me (I hesitate to say triggering because, ugh) I can be reduced to tears going to the local Nordstorm.
The olfactory bulb is an outcrop of the forebrain that sits above the nasal cavity and connects directly to the amygdala and the hippocampus, where emotions and memories are processed. So smells are processed by the same brain circuitry that is responsible for emotional reactions and memory formation, which it seems would go some way to explain their close connection.
To me, this is a fascinating thread—I have no sense of smell (congenitally, to the best of my recollection—I don’t recall ever having one), so I don’t have that experience of a smell ‘taking me back’. Indeed, I tend to have a rather bad episodic memory on the whole, and I’ve always idly wondered whether the two might be connected—if whether without the smells to ‘fixate’ memories, they just tend to be less vivid.
Petrichor is the first thing that comes to mind. It is perhaps my favorite smell, and evokes so many memories of the past - walking home in the rain after school, rainy weekends out shopping with my parents, even the Disney attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean, which tends to have a strong smell of something similar to petrichor the second you walk into the building.
But there is a more elusive smell that I still catch whiffs of at the strangest moments. It is the smell of my elementary school cafeteria. Best I can tell, it is a mixture of cafeteria food mixed with all those brown bag lunches of peanut butter and jelly or tuna sandwiches, which also reminds me of the old-school metal lunchboxes, and even the inside of lockers in middle school. I vividly remember smelling this on the first day I ever attended a public school, and it continues to haunt 50 years later.
I can smell that scent occasionally when walking through the grocery store, or opening the fridge, or even in places where no food seems to exist. Every time, it brings me right back to that grade school cafeteria.
When I was staying at a friend’s house in Germany during the summer, down near Stuttgart but in the country, there was a very strong smell in the basement, acidic, I’m guessing pickled foods. Haven’t smelled anything like that in the 30 years since.
Here is a very nostalgic smell I can remember on demand: The odd, plasticky leathery smell of the white headliner from a VW bus. You know, the stuff with a geometric pattern of tiny holes. My big brother had one of these vehicles in the 1970s, and sold it in about 1980. During the 80s I had a friend whose family also had one, so I got into that vehicle on occasion. But I’ve not actually encountered this material in 3+ decades.
Wanna ride on the back of my RZ? 
How fast would you drive?
Half.
The smell of boiling potatoes always makes me feel something hard to describe. It’s not a particular time or place, it’s just an ancient smell. It feels like forever. It’s a smell I rarely come across these days.
The smell of a high school makes me very nostalgic. We lived across the street from a high school when I was a young girl and the seniors threw all of their belongings in the air on the last day. All of my young friends and relatives raided the school the next day and scored so much good stuff. We didn’t break in (I don’t think). That was a fun time.
The last time I was in a high school, I was picking up my daughter from a dance and they were playing some sad garth brooks song. Between the song and the aroma, I started to cry and had to walk outside.
I love the description of “ancient aromas” that
smell like forever. So poetic.
Speaking of schools, the smell of crayons and mimeograph work sheets is a nice nostalgic smell.
I always gagged when I did “eat with your student” day at my kids elementary schools. That cafeteria smell was always off-putting to me.
The smell of pubs in the morning - especially Saturday morning, prior to smoking being banned indoors. Pubs smelt of stale tobacco smoke and spilt beer and occasionally wood smoke. I used to find it oddly comforting even though there is nothing especially nice about some of those aromas.
I know what you mean. Las Vegas casinos had a distinctive aroma of cigarettes, cheap cologne and carpet cleaner.
Dude!!!
I’ve done continuing education trips to New Orleans a few times with my gf and friends of hers.
On any given day I’d wake at 5. Shower, stumble off to class. The entire walk to the hotel there’d be shopkeepers hosing up piss and vomit. The second story folks would be watering their spider plants, dribbling the excess down on me. It would be 85 F and 99% humidity.
I’d sign the attendance sheet, grab a danish, and run back to the place I was staying. Slip back into bed without waking my gf or her friends. Doze back off for an hour.
Oh, oh, that smell…….
Same here. I always brought a sack lunch but could barely eat it because of the stench. Nothing would have made me actually eat something from the caff. Thank goodness they let us eat outside when we got to Middle school. I absolutely believe that contributed to my terrible relationship with food.
Were I to smell a cafeteria today, I’m sure it would bring back memories. As it it, you post brought back memories. Once a week in elementary school we’d have hot dogs. I swear they hot dogs had a green tinge to them. I don’t know what kind of hot dogs they used, but I didn’t like Farmer John’s hot dogs when I was a kid and teen. Similar taste. Anyway, those hot dogs are what I think of when I think of school lunches.