Smells and memories

[azsnowman]

What smells take you back to some fond and NOT so fond memories?

For me, the smell of Blue Spruce trees being trimmed reminds me of Christmas. The smell of Pinyon Pine reminds me of New Mexico. The smell of freshly mown grass takes me back to my childhood of laying in the grass.

[JenBayles]

I LOVE Pinyon Pine! My grandparents lived in New Mexico and I always brought home Pinyon Pine incense with me as a reminder. Still love the fresh-mown grass too - why does it always seem to be so much more pungent in spring? Is it just because we haven't smelled green growing things for months or is it really 'sweeter'?

Here's a weird one: gasoline. I used to love it when my dad would take me with him to gas up the family 68 Dodge Dart. Yeah - I'm old! I think gas was like .30 a gallon then. Yikes! That was one of those little father-daughter traditions so the smell of gasoline is a good one for me.

[Lindaloo]

Race car fumes. I know you all probably think I am crazy, but I have been around them most of my life. The smell is awesome, especially the ones that will haul boogie. Also, the noisier the better.

[GalvestonDuck]

Chlorinated water...I love to swim. You can't always "smell" it though (obviously, you can't sniff underwater). But when I do smell it, it reminds me of those cool, dew-covered mornings when I'd ride out on my bike to the country club for swim practice. I could smell it for the last three blocks.

Of course, Play-Doh, Elmer's glue, Crayola crayons, and real Johnson & Johnson Band-aids are familiar, childhood fragrances.

Country ham reminds me of my grandfather's house (my daddy's dad). And you just can't get country ham in Texas like you can in Kentucky.

And although it's not a "smell," the taste of Sprite reminds me of being sick or my plane trip home after my dad died. I never used to drink it anyway, but my mom would give it to me when I was sick (along with other clear liquids) and they gave it to me on the flight because I got airsick. To this day, I don't like to drink Sprite.

[Miss Mary]

Fall - the smell of leaves either burning (I know, weird) or composting in the woods, while hiking.

Winter - the smell of snow coming. I swear the Ohio Valley has a distinctive smell right before it snows. LOL

Canada - the smell of pine trees. We vacationed there in the mid 90s, two Summers in a row. Haven't been back since but I swear the farther north you go, into Michigan, Wisconsin and on up into Canada, the air smells so crisp and clean, and well pine smelling. I can close my eyes and almost remember that smell.

Indoor - Christmas cookies baking. Especially Spritz cookies with almond extract. This is Christmas to me! Next would be the scent of a real xmas tree.

This is going to sound odd, but I love the outdoorsy smell on our Golden. When she smells like a real dog. Woody, dirty, muddy smells.......not all frou-frou like. She is not a frou-frou type dog! (Yes I do bathe her!).

More but I can't quite think of any right now.

Oooh one more, cedar - esp. from a hope chest (if antiqueing, I just want to pop the lids and smell inside!).

Mary

[Stephanie]

I love the scents of Fall as well Miss Mary. The crispness in the air and the smell of wood burning.

I love the scent of the outdoors during a warm summer evening - everything is so fresh and clean.

I also believe in the "scent" of snow as well. There's just something different about the air.

The scent of the ocean.

The scent of a fresh Christmas tree in the house.

The scent of lilacs and roses. Mmmmmm!!!

[JenBayles]

Good one one the burning leaves! "Back in my day," when you could still burn leaves, that was another Dad and Kid fall ritual.

Another weird one: dirt. I got my love of gardening from both my parents. All four of us kids got pressed into service digging in the veggie garden when we could handle the plastic kiddie gardening tools. Living in Kansas, we had that black loamy soil that'll grow just about anything, and it smells much different than the Houston gumbo I've gotten used to.

[angelwing]

Ahhhh, ok the weird ones:
Horseradish-reminds me of my mom in the basement with the back door open and her sitting in the door frame grating the horseradish root to make beet horseradish to go with our Easter Ham, the basement smelled awesome!

Babka baking for Christmas, along with Turkey-for Christmas & Thanksgiving

My father when he would come home from one of his vets of foreign wars meetings at the post/bar, he didn't drink, but to this day I think someone smoked an exquiste cigar-the meetings were on one Sunday a month and when he came home we would go out somewhere just the 2 of us, it was grat

Campfires-when we used to go camping

Burning leaves-the clean crisp smell of Fall

Pine-Christmas!

There's more but these were the ones that hit me first..ooo wait, carnations!
Mother's Day!

[Cookiely]

The damp fertile smell of the woods on a crisp day when the wind is blowing. The beginning of hunting season has wonderful memories for me. When I was young our family built a hunting cabin on the Withlacoochee river. We carted the lumber down this tiny road until the river flooded the road and then we carted it by boat up the Withlacoochee. Mama would make grits and eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and homemade bisquits. In the summer we would stay on vacation and fish, and play in the bath house which was supplied by water from the well. The coldest water I have ever bathed in. You could hear us shrieking for miles. We had the fanciest outhouse imaginable. My grandfather carved stars and moons in the tin for light. My sisters and I chose pink for the color on the outside, and my mama put a fake fur to cover the platform of the toilet. Our entertainment was a victrola record player and late at night we got one station from Tennessee on the radio which played great country music. We would sit around the fire outside (my sister who's a year older could always make a fire since she was little), and roast marshamallows and listen to the animals rooting around and thinking it was a bear. Usually it was one of the wild cows from Lykes brothers wandering around. They were the meanest thing in the woods next to the bob cat that almost landed on my head one day when I was hunting. He jumped from the tree and missed me by a hair. Running around trying to catch fireflies.
Bad memories for me is the smell of beer. RIP Dan.

[azsnowman]

Jen....when we were in Santa Fe it was downright COLD and everywhere we went the smell of Pinyon Pine FILLED the air, so we bought the incense my house smells like a DOPE house now with all the incense burning

[Miss Mary]

LOL Dennis - incense is something I just cannot do - it gives me an instant headache! There's a trendy, eclectic section of one of city's surburbs near the University of Cincinnati. My daughter's like shopping there so I've tagged along a lot. One store I like in particular but I have to almost hold my breath when I'm in there (they have cute tops made from natural fibers). I have to pay my bill and just smile. If I talk, I have to inhale and then whamo, here comes the headache. LOL

Cookiely - I enjoyed reading about your family's hunting cabin! Your stories made me shiver, thinking about bathing that way but I'm sure they are memories you wouldn't trade for the world.

Mary

[Dee Bee]

What a wonderfully evocative thread!

Here's what I'll briefly add:

-- A waft of a certain pipe tobacco takes me back to summer nights in Honey Lake, WI on the wrap-around porch at my grandparents' summer home, drowsing on Grandpa's lap after a hard day of play with my tribe of cousins from my dad's eleven siblings.
-- With my own baby a young lady of 26 now (and until I'm blessed with grandbabies), I have to consciously hold onto that delicious baby smell, the one especially noticeable in the sweet, soft, folds of the neck. That little scent of heaven marked what we called the "tender tasty" -- the best spot for lovable nuzzling!

[coriolis]

Burning leaves definitely.
And yes, Mary, you can smell the snow coming.
The musty smell of the woods.

You're going to love this one: Fresh manure on the farm fields brings back memories for me.

Just today at work, someone was doing a big copy job and the copier was hot. I remarked to a co-worker: "There's nothing like the smell of toner in the morning."

[breeze]

Jen....when we were in Santa Fe it was downright COLD and everywhere we went the smell of Pinyon Pine FILLED the air, so we bought the incense my house smells like a DOPE house now with all the incense burning

I'm coming over to paint a big 'ole peace sign on your front door,
Dennis!

And, speaking of hippies.... ...the smell of patchouli makes me
think of the days that I lived in an alternative community, and, the
potluck suppers, and, the drum circles at night, and, walking along
the ridge at night under a full moon, unafraid of being harmed.

The smell of burning wood takes me back to a time when we were
all piled up in that little house when I was a kid, hugging the
wood stove in the winter...it was cozy and we HAD to get along to
keep from pinching each other's heads off!

The smell of whiskey - blaaaaghhh!!! Don't even bring it close to me!
(*No further comment....)

Annette

[Miss Mary]

Okay, here's a smell that will take a lot you back, waaaaaayyyy back -

Remember being handed a ditto at school, run off on the mimeograph machine? First you'd smell it, then get to work.

My old HS schedule was duplicated on a mimeograph and I have it packed away. It still has that smell too!

Mary

[coriolis]

Oh yeah!

[streetsoldier]

I LOVE the smell of napalm in the morning...smells like victory!

[azsnowman]

It's funny how smells trigger memories isnt' it? Seems most of us have one particular memory in common, the smell of autumn and burning leaves Bill...I was waiting for that one Ed...MANURE??? LOL! Annette, the smell of Jim BEAM turns my stomach too....New Years Eve 1976, Adak Alaska, don't remember TOO much about that night but the SMELL of JB comes to memory YUCK! Mary...the ol' Ditto Machine, the blue ink, I can smell it like it was yesterday!

[Pburgh]

Yep, the smell of gasoline. When I was a kid, we used to vacation every year at Lake Chautaugua in New York. My Dad and I would start out at 5:00 a.m. and get into our little outboard to do some early morning fishing. When he started the motor, the smells of the gasoline, the crisp air and the lake gave me goose bumps. (It could have been that I was freezing too!) I was always so excited to get out there and catch the BIG MUSKIE!!!!

The smell of bacon and coffee - I always remember the wonderful times I've had camping.

Pumpkin Pie baking - always brings back great holiday memories.

[Stephanie]

-- A waft of a certain pipe tobacco takes me back to summer nights in Honey Lake, WI on the wrap-around porch at my grandparents' summer home, drowsing on Grandpa's lap after a hard day of play with my tribe of cousins from my dad's eleven siblings.

THAT'S WHAT I FORGOT!!!

Pipe smoke - my Grandfather would always smoke a pipe after dinner. I love that scent and I ALWAYS think of him when I smell it.