My dad hasn’t smoked a pipe in 35 years or so, but following a gentleman on the sidewalk today, I could tell he was smoking Captain Black tobacco.
Man that stuff smells good!
Hoppe’s #9 cleaning solution takes me back to silently watching my dad clean his guns and reload shells; we had to be very quiet if we wanted to spend time w/ him.
Chanel #5 is my mom getting ready to go out the few times a year my parents went to an SCCA function.
Old Spice is my dad fresh out of the shower, every 2-3 days.
Beer is the smell of his kisses; Good Morning, Good Night, any of Dad’s kisses. I hated any guy I dated to smell of beer in their breath.
Salt marsh is the smell of Charleston and a new start.
Oil of Olay and/or Chanel #5 makes me think of my mom.
The smell of oil & gasoline (preferably along with the sound of revving engines) makes me think of hanging out at the racetrack with my dad (who used to race motorcycles when I was little).
And sometimes, after a tryst, I catch the scent of my lover’s sweat still on my skin. That makes my eyes roll back up in my head and puts a smile on my face…
Popcorn – Even though I spent a good 5+ years working at movie theaters, this smell still takes me back to the days of my youth. Sears always had a warm nuts / popcorn counter inside the store, and I can even hear the “ping ping” over the intercom before an announcement. My dad used to buy whatever amount of warm cashews he could with his pocket change. The poor store clerk, trying to measure out 17 or 23 cents’ worth!
Pipe tobacco – Can’t identify a specific brand, but the smell in general is my grandpa. I was maybe 7/8 when he died.
Diesel – London. My husband is from England and we “dated” for 10+ years, transatlantic, before he gave up & moved to California. I spent a LOT of time flying back & forth, usually via Gatwick.
Paco Rabanne – My husband. I don’t think he wears it anymore, but I during the previously mentioned 10 year courtship, right after we’d parted after a visit, I caught a whiff of someone wearing it & turned around, thinking he’d be just around the corner. He wasn’t, but the smell was both saddening & cheerful at the same time. Until then I hadn’t realized that I’d made that connection.
Zeldar you are right about the book(excellent) and the movie (meh). I was helping my father in law on an A/C unit change out the other day and the old unit smell put me right back into first grade.
I was in the library studying an old anatomy book when I put my head down on the book, just for a second, and smelled something musty. I had smelled that smell before but I couldn’t seem to place it. I wracked my brains to remember the first time I smelled that smell! I tried so hard, I dozed off, just for a second. Immediately I had a dream about Pirates of the Caribbean in DisneyLand. THATS IT! That anatomy book smelled just like Pirates of the Caribbean!
I also experience the ‘rain on pavements (sidewalks)’ memory connection. That funny damp dusty smell takes me back to my childhood in Portsmouth (UK).
Welch’s brand grape juice transports me to the greenhouse of a childhood friend, whose dad presumably grew the Concord variety of grape.
In intro to psychology in college, we heard memory and the sense of smell were closely linked because the smell receptors are connected directly to the amygdala, or something similar to that.
Diesel: This takes me back to being six years old and standing at the school bus stop with my grandpa. I rode Bus #6. It was newer and delightful. But on days when Bus #6 would be getting ready for a field trip or something else, we got Bus #4. #4 was old. It belched diesel. You could hear it coming before you could see it. Thank goodness my ride to school was just over a mile.
I was even more mortified when I saw written on the back wall of the bus, in my mother’s handwriting, “Helen Loves Tommy.”
I had another smell-triggered memory yesterday. I was making a green bean salad to take to a potluck, and as I was cutting the green beans, I was reminded strongly of my grandmother. Specifically, I pictured myself standing in her kitchen.
Gramma always had a huge garden and spent most of the summer putting up fruit and vegetables. I often helped out with the green beans, corn, and blueberry harvests. I realized on Sunday that the smell of fresh green beans or corn reminds me of helping Gramma can veggies in her kitchen.
That combination of aromas takes me to Rio de Janeiro, specifically to the highway that follows the perimeter of the bay.
There are (or were) lots of sardine canneries and such along there, along with pungent aromas of diesel and other “working port” scents.
A fun topic, and well-worth replying to even if it’s been a number of years since the last entry.
Pickling salt when canning cucumbers! LOVED that smell, and think about my mom each and every time I can pickles.
Another for me, the smell of oven-baked shortbread cookies leading up to Christmas! The house smelled heavenly for days!
One more that does it for me… Johnson’s Baby Powder. Changing the diapers of baby siblings, and of course as a mom I used it on my own children at change-time.
I’m hesitant to start a reply as there are so many accumulated over my lifetime.
I’ve smelled plenty of gasoline in my life but one memory is very pleasant. My uncle owned a 1947 beautifully kept red Harley Davidson, and he would occasionally come by on a Saturday or Sunday to give my brother and/or me a ride. No helmets in those days. I remember the smell on hot summer days when he would fill it, knowing the great day I was going to have.
Old Spice gift sets for my father on Fathers day. He wore the after shave, though not the included cologne. His Bond Street pipe tobacco both when he smoked it and still in the tin, while I examined the London street scene on the outside. When I took up pipe smoking for a few years, I added Mixture 79 and Cherry Blend. I’m sure I could identify each if I was exposed to them.
He had a year overseas (USAF) and when he returned, he brought my mother a bottle of Chanel No. 5. Beautiful smell, maybe only other perfume I could identify, I’m not remembering the name :smack:
Honeysuckle at the corner house from my grandmother’s summer nights in Woodhaven, Queens.
I’ll stop now :o
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I initially thought the same, just so many when one starts thinking about.
The cleaner they used in my high school had a unique and pleasant aroma. It always seemed more pronounced when I came back in the evening for events like band, sports, etc. My grandparents 60’s brick ranch home always had a similar, very clean smell. Now my parents live there…I should ask them what it was.
Not that I smell them very often, but that distinctive moth ball smell reminds me of camping in the old pop-up camper with my parents, years ago.
Ugh… I still remember that smell from my grandmas basement.
I had never smelled that aroma as a child, so moth balls always remind me of Day One of boot camp, when they issued our uniforms. That’s not necessarily a fond memory.
opened up a sea bag that had been closed since mrAru retired back in 2003 - could still smell ‘sub funk’ - I really miss that [machine oil, diesel, ozone and body odor and that cheap Navy laundry detergent]
Autoclaves*. Sometimes I’ll catch a whiff of the smell in a hospital corridor if I’m passing the labs. I hate the smell - it’s pungent and acrid - but it takes me right back to my first job. And actually, despite the fact that there were autoclaves all over the place there, it takes me back to a specific seat in an office adjacent a room where there were autoclaves. Weird.
j
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- ovens for the sterilisation of equipment, etc. I think the characteristic small is that of scorched agar gel.