Distinct smells and the memories they elicit

Games like;
Kick the can
High Buckety Buck
King of the Mountain
Flashlight Tag
Hide & Seek after dark.
Playing Army.
Didn't have any "Organized Sports" - No Soccer Moms, No helmets and pads, No booster clubs, and no treats after the games. The only pop-up tents we had were old blankets strung over a clothesline with stakes made out of tree limbs.
Swings were made out of a hunk of rope and an old tire. The Swimmin' Hole didn't have any chemicals in it and somehow we survived.

My dogs farts, they remind me of my brother

Pipe smoke - reminds me of my Dad smoking his pipe in the evenings when I was little, makes me feel safe and cozy.
Pine trees - takes me back to when we had real trees for Christmas.
Cinnamon and hot chocolate - memories of making cinnamon toast and hot chocolate for my kids on snow days when they were growimg up.

pipe smoke - my dad paid me .25 a week to clean his pipes
geranium leaves - my mother had a huge patch of it at our house in Calif.

Vick's Vapo Rub, head under towel above steaming hot water in our sink, helped clear up cold congestion...I can smell it without smelling it!
Denatured Alcohol, got a bath of it when we had a temperature, great cooling off and smell memories!

First day of school, first grade, that memory comes back with the smell of new jeans, not pre-washed, just stiff new ones. I always wore hand me downs, but that day warranted new clothes. All that anxiety comes right back, 53 years later.

The smell of watermelon means summer to me.

Ditto fluid. Always took me back to school.

Old cars (really old ones) with mohair upholstery have a very distinctive smell - it's an immediate flashback to my grandma's '33 Ford in her dirt-floor garage in northern Nebraska.

Puppy breath - the best thing ever!

My great grandmother made balm of gilead salve, great "drawing" qualities,very uselful before antibiotics.  She made it with mutton tallow, camphor, & balm of gilead buds.  Several years ago, I was at an herb store they they had a jar labeld "balm of gilead buds" .  When I removed the lid, ti smelled Grandma Lewis' salve.  Facebook has allowed me to connect with cousins I grew up with.  We are planning to make balm of gilead salve this fall.  Outside on our grills, I can't imagine what our homes would smell like if we made it inside.

The scent of either lilies-of-the-valley or lilacs always takes me back to grade school, when our Catholic church had an annual May procession that ended with crowning a statue of Mary set up on a platform in the church parking lot.  There would be at least a hundred bouquets of flowers that church members brought from home and the scent of the lilacs and lilies-of-the-valley could be smelled from half a block away. 
 
To this day, whenever I smell them, I have an overwhelming desire to burst out singing
Bring flowers of the rarest
Bring flowers of the fairest
From garden and woodland and hillside and dale…
 
The smell of Noxema always reminds me of being sunburned at the NJ shore in the pre-sunscreen days.  My cousins and I would end up being slathered with it before we went to bed after a day at the beach. 

Back in the 50's & 60's around Christmas time my Mom used to wrap ribbon on to oranges then push whole cloves into the orange and hang them around the house....was a sweet festive scent for the Holiday. Each year, I still hang the ribboned oranges....       Shadow

When my mother moved into her condo, downsizing from a house without my father I took some of my father's things.  They're just being stored in the garage, probably never to be used but they were important to him and I can't throw them out.
 
One of the items is a smal 14" x 14" x 14" wooden cabinet with drawers.
 
Thinking there might be one of those tiny old oil cans inside I pulled open a drawer yesterday.
 
Almost brought tears to my eyes as I remembered "working" in the garage with my father. 
 
Not only was it filled with weird shaped nuts and bolts, it also houses the smells of my youth with my father.
 
Wish I had a work bench in the garage that would give that cabinet the honor it deserves.