The smell of old wooden record players and television sets that had tubes in them as they warmed up.
The smell of Hawaiian tanning products with coconut. I always associate it with tanned girls hanging around the pool at pool parties when I was a teen. It’s a very erotic smell for me.
Clearasil too, oddly enough. Every girl I liked in high school wore it at some time for blemishes, and I always associated it with pretty girls that I liked.
Backstage at small old theaters - the smell of old costumes and the sizing in flats and greasepaint and dust and the ozone-like smell of arc-powered spotlights.
I love the smell of tomato plants too. Nothing says summer like that smell.
But my favorite smell, and I see I’m not alone here, is 2-stroke exhaust. When my garage smells like a 2-stroke it means I’ve just got back from a hellaciously fun ride and I’ve got a big shit-eatin’ grin on my face. And bugs on my teeth.
I started typing 2-stroke exhaust earlier, but then KNEW that if you saw this thread you’d would write that. So I left it for you. Because I’m nice like that…sometimes.
-the inside of a cedar chest filled with old books and linens.
-a well used leather baseball or baseball glove. Smells like eternal springtime.
-a baby’s hair
-roasted coffee beans
-an auto mechanic shop. The mix of oil, grease, tires and gasoline reminds me of my childhood.
Baby smell. Every day when I get home I grab my baby girl, stick my nose in her hair and inhale deeply. It’s like a drug.
Tomatoes definitely.
I haven’t smelled it in forever, but the smell of the old gym at my school. We had a newer gym which smelled like sweat and wax, but that old gym smelled of old wood, dust, and some undefinable earthy smell. We performed our plays there. Good times.
I didn’t care for the body fragrance, but I LOVED the candle! I bought two on clearance and even dug out the wax and re-cast them so I could burn the “leftovers” when the wick burned down.
Someone needs to bring that back. Can we petition the Vermont Country Store? I bet as many people would buy that as buy Lemon Up shampoo.
Speaking of creosote, creosote bushes after a rain. Glorious. I have a couple of honestly nasty looking old creosote bushes on my property, that probably should go, but never will, just so I can run out there after a rain, and inhale. It’s wonderful and indescribable
My grandmother’s old jewelry box, many many many years later. I keep it closed most of the time, but when I open it, it’s Wrigley’s spearmint and tobacco (she hid her smokes in there) and a faint whiff of perfume.
Burning hair reminds me of branding time. Neighbors get together and help each other, usually enjoyable work, lots of joking and story telling, and a big meal after. Good times.
Been a machinist a long time. Fresh coolant smells good and earthy like Play-Do. (When it goes bad, it is it’s own bad smell. Similiar to cat pee.) When you are making lots of hot chips, it combines with the coolant to make a unique smell that to me smells like work getting done.
I can attest from personal experience that Gilroy CA does indeed smell at harvest time; enough to smell it from inside your car as you whiz through on US 101. But I don’t see any connection between garlic and skunk.
Leaded gas, vinyl pool toys, skunk! I think the only one I can’t agree with so far is creosote (if I’m thinking of the right thing). Is that the smell you always get at amusement parks (or maybe that’s just plain old tar)? As much as I love amusement parks you’d think it would be my favorite smell but I actually quite hate it.
Some that I don’t think I saw mentioned:
Nail salons, especially the smell of acrylic
Model homes. Don’t know if it’s the carpet or the wood or glue or a combo thereof
Windex
White Shoulders perfume.Yes it’s as old as the hills but who’s mom (if you’re a certain age) didn’t use it back in the day?
Fall. I used to think it was the smell of people using their fireplaces until I learned it’s actually the smell of the leaves dying (or something like that. In any case, it’s not the fireplaces).
Water rides at amusement parks. Think Pirates of the Caribbean or any of the various log rides out there.
