Scents that remind you of things.

[check]

It has been said that sense of smell is the most powerful for recalling memories. What are some smells that remind you of places or situations?

Here are a few of mine:

Diesel fuel exhaust always reminds me of Europe…Poland in particular. Probably from all the times I’ve been to Poland, inhaling the fumes from poorly tuned trucks. But every time I visit Poland, it does have a distinctive smell about it.

Whiskey/Scotch reminds me of the time I drank way too much of the stuff and makes me feel nauseous. I can’t go near the stuff anymore. Vodka’s still on my good side though!

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches reminds me of junior kindergarten class, when all of the kids would have that for lunch and the entire class smelled like it.

 

[Janitor]

Sulphurous fumes remind me of the two times I have been to Yellowstone National Park, where (as the Americans here will know) they have lots of geysers and fumaroles and mudpots.

Creosote always reminds me of railroad ties. Hang on--the only time I smell that odor is when I am standing near tracks, so I guess that is not a good example.

 

[merak]

ahhh.. the sweet smell of her perfume.

 

[Moonbear]

Oh, yes, whiskey has that effect on me too...conditioned taste aversion is really difficult to get over. Annoying thing is that it wasn't the whiskey that made me sick, it was the tequila before the whiskey, but the whiskey is what I last tasted going both directions. :yuck: I have not touched a drop of tequila since then either.

The smell of the ocean reminds me of childhood visits to the boardwalk.

Can't think of any other smells off-hand...I think I need to smell them for them to jog my memory.

 

[Kerrie]

lilacs remind me of when i was at the magical age of 9...

 

[Evo]

Diesel fuel exhaust always reminds me of Europe

Exhaust fumes remind me of riding in tuk-tuks in Bangkok. :yuck: I thought I was going to die, I couldn't breathe, it was that bad.

The smell of new mown grass reminds me of happier times when I was a child.

Lavender reminds me of my mother. She loved lanvender. She had a lavender bush outside the house, we had lavender soap, lavender sachets in our dresser drawers, anything that came in lavender, we had. That and the smell of Joy perfume. It was my mother's signature fragrance. I will never forget the time I snuck into her bathroom and put some on, it was so heavenly. I dropped the bottle and it spilled all over the floor. I was sure I would be killed, but she never said a word.

 

[Monique]

Juniper Breeze talk power reminds me of early days in the US, New York specifically. When I smell it, its like I'm sitting in that same crammed American Dream hostel room again..

 

[vix43]

At my secondary school the smell of room 43, a science lab, reminds me of when I was in year 9.That was the best year of my life by far! When I walk in the room it juist takes me back, but I don't get to go in it now because it's not a physics room anymore

 

[pace]

I love that special smell of beer, smoke and wallpaste, which it was back at where my bro and sis lived together before. When I was still young, things where still magical, and I where coming to them to play games on their 286 PC. And I usually dislike the smell of smoke and beer.

 

[The Bob]

Annoying thing is that it wasn't the whiskey that made me sick, it was the tequila before the whiskey, but the whiskey is what I last tasted going both directions. :yuck: I have not touched a drop of tequila since then either.

I don't drink an alcohol at all.

Value Oil reminds me of my lessons in instrument repair.

Fresh air reminds me of the beautiful hills in Wales.

The smell of electrical fires reminds me of the time I set my friends hair alight. Was fun. He was wondering what smelled that bad and were the smoke was coming from. :rofl: It was from his hair. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Great memorise

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[zoobyshoe]

"I love the smell of Zoobies in the morning...smells like...napalm!"

-Lt. Kilgore
Zoobpocalypse Now!

 

[Integral]

Let me reminise, I was 19, it was January. I was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Training center, standing a Midwatch waiting for... Well as in so common in the sevice, waiting for the sake of waiting.

I recall leaning on the podium, looking out the glass doors to the icy frozen darkness, it was well below zero, the wind was whisteling, and there was ice and snow every where. I grew up, and had only a few weeks before been living in the Pacific Northwest, were it was 45deg and raining. Most of my teenage years had been spend out doors, camping, hiking and hunting in the southern Oregon forests. I remember closing my eyes and and smelling the fir boughs and forest smells that had so recently been a big part of my life.. but were not now and would not be for the next 4 years. At that point I forced myself to stop dwelling on the past and look to the future.


Other smells... Dry grass to my pre teen years.

OOOhh that smell,... smell that smell... to... well where does that smell take you?

 

[Kerrie]

Most of my teenage years had been spend out doors, camping, hiking and hunting in the southern Oregon forests. I remember closing my eyes and and smelling the fir boughs and forest smells that had so recently been a big part of my life..

yes, I grew up on Southern Oregon too I remember many summers going to YMCA camps and smelling the forest.
The lilacs I smelled were outside my bedroom window and were in full bloom one spring. Anytime I smell lilac now, especially the white, it always takes me back to being 9 years old.

 

[Moonbear]

Oh, I just thought of something. When I first moved into my house, it smelled like my grandparents' house...no, not old people smell (yes, you all know what that is even if you won't admit it), something that just reminded me of all the summers I would be at their house all day almost every day (they were the fun grandparents).

 

[Evo]

Oh, I just thought of something. When I first moved into my house, it smelled like my grandparents' house...no, not old people smell (yes, you all know what that is even if you won't admit it), something that just reminded me of all the summers I would be at their house all day almost every day (they were the fun grandparents).

They smoked pot, eh? :tongue2:

Mothballs definitely remind me of my paternal grandmother.

She was English, and every Sunday she made roast beef with yorkshire pudding. I miss that smell.

Now that I'm remembering food smells. My mother is French and she made homemade french bread at least once a week so that we'd have "real" bread to eat. Bread baking has to be my #1 favorite smell.

 

[BoulderHead]

There are many smells which trigger memories. Here are just a scant few;

Burning coconut husks; mosquitoes
Roasting ear of corn; corn harvest
Burning grass; savannah fire
Burning bush; land clearing
Freshly upturned soil; land clearing by dozer
Earthworms; river fishing
Fish; tolling cays and barrier reef in dory
Gear oil; heavy equipment
Freshly cut grass; machete
Cahoon leaf; roof building
Cahoon nut; hammer
Coconut oil; food
Coconut scented suntan lotion; food and dusky bikini clad woman

 

[Ivan Seeking]

denatured alcohol: Getting childhood immunization shots.

Doritos: 15 years old and spending Boogie days at the beach: Huntington cliffs, Seal Beach Jetty, South Laguna Nigel.

The smell of the ocean: Body surfing at night. It was grand. What a thrill to be too young and stupid to know better.

Two stroke oil: El mirage Lake bed, sand dunes and hills, motorcycles, dune buggies, sand rails, and lots and lots of alcohol of all kinds. I have never been so sick... I got hurt a lot! It was grand. What a thrill to be too young... but survive!

A particular white wine - don't know which for sure: 6/7/8th grade as an alter boy. I always liked the smell of the wine at 6AM.

The smell of icing on a cake: Having icing fights when I worked at a bakery as a kid.

Fire: backpacking

The smell of a new book: Reading the book of the month as a child.

 

[check]

Haha, these are all awesome. I thought of a couple of more:


The smell of my old high school during the summertime reminded me of the Children’s Hospital in my city that I used to frequent as a child.

The smell Lower Manhattan near ‘ground zero’ reminded me of my grandparent’s attic.

 

[katiska]

The smell of a soap in the army reminds me of fear and death.
The entire building where I started my training smells like that.

 

[merak]

Red clay dirt, and slowly leaking racing fuel, as I was upside down, on the front straight-a- way of a race track.. for just a second,it smelled like..death.

 

[Njorl]

When I was a kid I loved going to the shore in South Jersey (that's New Jersey). I lived in Philadelphia, so it was a long ride, for a kid. Just before you get there, there is the awful smell of the marshlands just inland from the shore - decaying vegetation and dead fish etc. That awful smell was the best smell in the world. Now, I drive my own family there, and I get all excited when I smell that stench!

Njorl

 

[Moonbear]

They smoked pot, eh? :tongue2:

LOL! No, different generation. Their substance abuse was limited to alcohol.