Lets forget about the doom and gloom for a minute.....What smell takes you back to a better time?

Just the other day I walked into our shop and one of the guys was using a jig-saw on a sheet of ply-wood.
(we dont do wood work, so not a normal thing to happen in our shop)

And all of a sudden the slight smell of wood burning, from the saw, took me back to my childhood back in wood shop. It was like I was right there again. I could see our woodshop with all the equipment, saw dust on the floor and scattered wood projects all around the room.

It was great, I completly forgot about my daily grind for a few moments to take a trip down memory lane. All thanks to a guy saw on some wood in our shop.


So ATS to us a story of what smell really takes you back to a better time.

The smell of milk soaked fruit-loops reminds me of the house I was baby sat at. A lot of kids in that house.

Aww man, I love me some fresh cut wood smell!

But it's grass for me!

When I was a kid, my dad used to make me do all the yard work all by my lonesome. I would get pissed off because I was the youngest of 5, and he wouldn't get the others to offer a hand. So he'd come outside every once in a while to yell at... er uh... remind me how I'm supposed to hold the shears or how to visualize the lines when edging the lawn!

It never fails... every single time I smell fresh cut grass, I get whipped back to being a kid on another hot @$$ California Saturday morning!

~philthy

Coming home after a cold school day, and walking into a warm house, with the aroma of southern beef stew from scratch.....AH memory lane, a time where none of this mattered lol

The smell of dead leaves in fall, that autumn aroma, brings me back as a kid where I would just go outside and feel " actually feel" my whole body vibrating. A unique experience that I haven't felt since.

Damn being a kid was amazing. Thanks for the cool thread, for once we're not talking Iran, Ron Paul, WW3 and all that other doom and gloom.

Peace my friend and much Love

Strangely the smell of fresh cut grass and cow poop really takes me back.

When I was a kid we had a cabin in the hill country of west Texas and that was the promenant smell of the area.
We would go to that cabin a couple times every summer.

This is an odd one...but the smell of livestock always takes me down memory lane.

I grew up on a huge ranch in Nevada...moved away to go to college and rarely get home...so when I am in the Ag building at the college...I take a trip down memory lane!

Almost 40 and still get homesick every now and then!

Ahhh man I love the smell of Spring air and freshly cut grass, but what really takes me back is the smell of dirt. It reminds me of a time when I didn't have a care in the world except for what kind of veggies my mom would be forcing on me that night, LOL.

I also love the smell of Connecticut, it's my home state and to me there is always a smell of rich pine and wood burning stoves in the air. My Ma thinks I'm nuts when I say it but I can't be convinced otherwise, you can blindfold me with the windows down and I will know when I have arrived home.

Yeah. freshly cut grass for me too. That brings me back to my childhood. A more mature memory flashback-maker is patchouli. Had this really freaky hippie chick in college whose apt. smelled of it. Those are some good memories too...
Just thought of another one, and this one is strange. I guess I'd describe it as a "farm" smell. Kind of a mix of hay, manure, grass, saddle (leather), dog and horses. We had a farm when I was really little growing up in Iceland before we moved back to the US. That's probably my earliest memory. It's cool how smell is so powerful it can take us back like that.

Coffee grinds in the morning. Contrary to popular belief, I am an American that doesn't drink at a fake ass Starbucks.

hi op
last week i took my daughter to school (shes 5)
you could smell the cleaners cleaning products
that mixed with the smell of pencil sharpenings
that took me back nearly 30 yrs lol
cheers

Fresh cut grass and cow poop Ah yes... the memories hehe

The one that most does it for me though is Creosote, it takes me back to when my Mum used to take me and my sister to get new clothes from a shop we used to call "the Ladybird Shop" because it used to have huge plastic ladybirds on display with weird plastic mannequin children playing around them.

We must've been about 4 or 5 years old.

The creosote brings back the memories because the clothing store was above a hardware store that you used to have to go through to get the stairs at the back.

Campfire and cinnamon...

The smell of Pernil ( Roast pork shoulder cooked Puerto Rican style) It reminds me of special occasions surrounded by family. It also just smells ( and tastes) plain delicious.

There are a number of smells that are hard to describe, but instantly remind me of places and times.

- I think it's strawberry-vanilla lip balm - Every girl in my 2nd grade class must have worn this.

- My grandparents farmhouse was some combination of mothballs, apple pie and machine oil.

- Valve oil for a trumpet has a very distinctive smell that takes me back to summer of 5th grade.

- Rotting potatoes. Ew. A baby sitter had an abandoned house on their property that for some reason had potatoes on the floor. Apparently used as a root cellar.

- Rotting leaves. Playing for hours in a huge forested drainage ditch.

- Freshly turned black field dirt has a very distinct smell also. Very organic and mineral rich.

Originally posted by WickettheRabbit
There are a number of smells that are hard to describe, but instantly remind me of places and times.

- My grandparents farmhouse was some combination of mothballs, apple pie and machine oil.

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edit on 28-2-2012 by WickettheRabbit because: Forgot the dirt.

Yeah that combo of smells would be quite the aromatic rollercoaster.

reply to post by the_philth


Love the smell of a fresh cut lawn... it really takes you back.

Recently, I was showing a property, and we had walked into the garage/workshop. The owner was doing body work and repainting a float plane. I smelled those chemicals and in an instant, I was back in my childhood with my dad painting or working on a car... Damn, I loved that smell.