# "Non-traditional" Favorite Smells **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 23, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-traditional-favorite-smells/744026 "2016-01-23T22:29:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-traditional-favorite-smells/744026/141 "2016-01-30T04:14:30Z")
Brake dust and racing fuel. The dusty scent of hot sunlight on white landscaping rocks. The clean scent in the air around a waterfall. A tomato right off the vine on a sunny day. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-traditional-favorite-smells/744026/142 "2016-01-30T18:53:23Z")
> [@stillownedbysetters](#): > > Noxema > > Vicks Vapo Rub > > snip Noxzema! Oh hell yes. And putting Vicks vapor steam (or generic equivelent) in my humidifier fills up the whole bedroom with that menthol-ly Vicks-y scent. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-traditional-favorite-smells/744026/143 "2016-01-30T19:05:01Z")
> [@stillownedbysetters](#): > > Noxema > > Vicks Vapo Rub > > The feed store smell - no one thing in particular, just the ambient smell of all kinds of guy stuff - loved it! > > Chlorine - swimming pool chlorine > > School gym smell - clean little kid sweat, industrial cleaner, hot dust > [@vivalostwages](#): > > Noxzema! Oh hell yes. > > And putting Vicks vapor steam (or generic equivelent) in my humidifier fills up the whole bedroom with that menthol-ly Vicks-y scent. > Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… One that’s probably long gone from your local drug store, but do y’all remember [Musterole](http://www.reminisce.com/1940s/musterole-before-there-was-vicks-vaporub/)? From that same period I remember loving the smell of PARKE-DAVIS/THROAT DISCS and Sucrets. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-traditional-favorite-smells/744026/144 "2016-01-30T19:17:39Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Another one crossed my mind. I remember as a kid going with my mom when she ran errands. I always liked the smell in the dry cleaners. I think it was the perc that was the source of brain killing awesomeness. My mom and grandmother worked in a dry cleaners/clothing repair shop when I was a kid. Mom and Gran did all the sewing and had a little room in the back of the store where they worked. Mom would bring my sister and I in with her sometimes, especially when there was a big supply order to put away. Sister and I would sort zippers and buttons and unwrap all the new spools of thread and then put everything in the correct drawer. The owner of the store figured she could pay a couple of kids with cookies and a bottle of pop to do that job rather than paying one of her regular employees. That would probably not fly today, having a couple of kids hanging out at a dry cleaners. But I smell that smell now and it’s 1984 again. I’m sitting on the supply counter putting stuff into drawers as my sister hands it up to me. I can hear the sewing machines and my gran singing along to the radio. And those cookies were soooo good. ---
**Author:** ![DinkyDink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@DinkyDink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinkyDink)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-traditional-favorite-smells/744026/145 "2016-01-30T22:35:19Z")
The community swimming pool with a mixture of tan lotions and chlorine. Old fashioned Coppertone sun tan lotion - the best! Fresh cut grass. Ozone New cars. cut pine. Evergreen or pine needles - Christmas! Cedar. Orange peels. I put them in a jar and use as potpourri. Some electronics. My skin when I was getting a tan with real sun, not a tanning booth. Lemon pledge. Old English furniture oil. Old churches that have a mildew smell. A baby. Eucalyptus - heavenly. House paint - oil or water based. My dads cigar smoke. And the weirdest one - my dads bo. He has been gone for 10 years, and his smell is totally gone. When I was a kid. I told my mom that I loved the smell of my dads coat. She came and smelled it and said, why, that is bo! I didn’t know. It just smelled like my dad. DinkyDink ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-traditional-favorite-smells/744026/146 "2016-01-30T23:10:44Z")
Remember Mimeograph machines? When a teacher ran off some tests and handed them out, all the kids would press the papers up to their face so they could smell the paper that was printed on the mimeograph machine. Elementary school was truly that boring. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-traditional-favorite-smells/744026/147 "2016-01-31T02:32:31Z")
Wood smoke. From fireplaces and fire pits. Just have so many good associations and memories that it makes me smile the moment I smell it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-traditional-favorite-smells/744026.md?page=7)