Smells That Remind You Of Childhood.

[ghost19]

Prince Albert pipe tobacco. I grew up mostly with my great-grandfather and he was rarely without his pipe. He was a wonderful person, I named my son after him. It always fascinated me that he could light his pipe with a zippo and never seemed to burn his fingers....

 

[Lily Sawyer]

-Triple Lanolin lotion
-My mother's perfume, Scandia (now called Galoré - ridiculous bogus French name)
-the musty-dusty smell of boxwood bushes
-woodsmoke from a chimney
-Coppertone and Bain de Soleil tanning cremes (for that St. Tropez tan I never quite achieved)
-Kölnisch Wasser (4711) cologne
-Maggi chicken bouillon
-creosote
-the combined smells of Cheer laundry detergent and Faultless spray starch - used in copious amounts by a friend's maid as she did the family laundry - I spent a lot of time playing over at said friend's house
-just about any Persian food smells (anything with fenugreek in it)
-the Chinese "holy trinity" of cooking: soy-ginger-garlic

 

[Neesy]

-Triple Lanolin lotion
-My mother's perfume, Scandia (now called Galoré - ridiculous bogus French name)
-the musty-dusty smell of boxwood bushes
-woodsmoke from a chimney
-Coppertone and Bain de Soleil tanning cremes (for that St. Tropez tan I never quite achieved)
-Kölnisch Wasser (4711) cologne
-Maggi chicken bouillon
-creosote
-the combined smells of Cheer laundry detergent and Faultless spray starch - used in copious amounts by a friend's maid as she did the family laundry - I spent a lot of time playing over at said friend's house
-just about any Persian food smells (anything with fenugreek in it)
-the Chinese "holy trinity" of cooking: soy-ginger-garlic

thanks for the memories

Spoiler

 

[Sarah25]

Play-Doh
cotton candy
Dr. Pepper lip smacker
Barbie dolls
White Linen perfume
Avon Dew Kiss lip balm
honeysuckle
a hot sidewalk after a rainstorm

 

[staropeace]

Wild Strawberries
The smell of a forest just after the rain stopped
Burning wood in a stove

Wild strawberries for me, too. I, also, remember the smell of wet grass after a summer rain.

 

[staropeace]

...Old Spice, Carter Hall pipe smoke and the warm smell of beagles-takes me back to kid-hood....

Oh I forgot Old Spice...the smell of my father.

 

[HollyGolightly]

Hola!



Mimeograph used to remind me of grade school. ( Yes, I am THAT old. ) yes I loved that - and they would sometimes be a little damp, ah...

Anything having to do with the forest - I was thinking of that smell a lightening bugs makes when you hold it in your hand - sometimes ladybugs smell that way too - I was an outdoor girl - the smell of mud..ahh. I spent a great deal of my childhood out in the woods, catching frogs, swinging from vines, building forts, wading through creeks, exploring.

Standing next to a tree isn't as transporting, but sitting in the shade of one sends my thoughts to childhood.

Bacon and coffee together always take me right back to my great-grandparents' house - mine too, whenever we spent the night at Mamaw's you woke up to the smell of bacon and coffee. I aim to keep that going around my house as often as possible. I don't think they ever had a breakfast without both, and their house was my favorite place ever when I was little. The smell of the post office in the little Wyoming town where my grandma lived is also very distinctive--you could take me in there blindfolded and I'd know exactly where I was.

does anyone remember wood scented pledge? It's what my mom used and I loved it. And they way our basement den smelled: leather furniture, paneled walls, stinky multi colored shag carpet.

 

[Lily Sawyer]

S.C. Johnson paste wax
gummi cola bottles
proper German pretzels
freshly-mowed lawns
honeysuckle
magnolia
Mentholatum

 

[staropeace]

Lightning bugs reminds me of when I was young and visited my aunt in New Jersey. I would catch them and hold them a little while. This, in turn, reminds of a little store in Villas that had the AC on full blast ....the place smelled like licorice to me. They had big glass jars with silver tops full of this confection. I did not know that I had a birth brother living not far away in this state....that discovery came later. Now I am remembering the smells of the boardwalk in Wildwood. There was a pizza place near there where the cooks would throw the dough into the air and spin it. One could watch them from the window or inside. Weird how your oldfactory sense can take you back, eh?

 

[Neesy]

Play-Doh
cotton candy
Dr. Pepper lip smacker
Barbie dolls
White Linen perfume
Avon Dew Kiss lip balm
honeysuckle
a hot sidewalk after a rainstorm

You like Avon Dew Kiss lip balm? Did you know that this stuff is still available? I have seen it on sale in their brochure not that long ago.

 

[Neesy]

Oh I forgot Old Spice...the smell of my father.

You have forgotten the face smell of your father?

 

[GNTLGNT]

Lightning bugs reminds me of when I was young and visited my aunt in New Jersey. I would catch them and hold them a little while. This, in turn, reminds of a little store in Villas that had the AC on full blast ....the place smelled like licorice to me. They had big glass jars with silver tops full of this confection. I did not know that I had a birth brother living not far away in this state....that discovery came later. Now I am remembering the smells of the boardwalk in Wildwood. There was a pizza place near there where the cooks would throw the dough into the air and spin it. One could watch them from the window or inside. Weird how your oldfactory sense can take you back, eh?

...it is indeed a marvelous time machine...

 

[EMARX]

The smell of the old streetcars I used ride in Toronto. Electricity mingled with cheap vinyl seats and the accumulated scents of decades of riders. And also the woosh that came out of the cracks of the banana seat when I'd climb aboard my 3 speed bike.

 

[Sarah25]

You like Avon Dew Kiss lip balm? Did you know that this stuff is still available? I have seen it on sale in their brochure not that long ago.

Thank you Neesy. I've seen that in the brochure too. Dew Kiss was my first allowed "cosmetic". I actually don't like the smell these days but it is sentimental to me.

I can't believe I forgot to add Elmer's school glue and my father's aftershave to my list.

 

[SHEEMIEE]

You have forgotten the face smell of your father?

Hah- nice ! Have you made the journey then?

 

[SHEEMIEE]

I used to have to wait for my mom after school, while she cleaned the corridors. I sat in the room under the stairs, which was where they kept all the mops and cleaning stuff. I remember the smell of the detergent and the bleach,as i sat there. Decades later I got a flashback so vivid while working in another school it took me right back to the cupboard. Never had the smell hit me since. Couldn't tell u what it was- maybe one day