Distinct smells and the memories they elicit

I just smelled some Walnuts the storm brought down, I was a little boy sniffing Walnuts, strong memories!
Many more, but you got the idea...Yours?

About 15 years ago I was at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and they've got a display of bottles that whiff scents into your face. It was amazing how many memories they brought back!!
 
My big one is always fresh-cut grass. I'm always instantly a little kid strapped to the back of my grandma's lawn tractor riding around.

chewingthefat


I just smelled some Walnuts the storm brought down, I was a little boy sniffing Walnuts, strong memories!
Many more, but you got the idea...Yours?

When I was a kid, brake fluid smelled like walnuts.

I like this topic. 
 
Moth balls.  Immediately think of my grandmother.
 
Pine trees bring back girl scout camp.
 
Wish I could get a wiff of some fresh mimeographed papers or white school paste.

Marlene
 
I would volunteer to be teacher's pet just to get the chance to smell the papers all the way back from the principal's office.
 
I grew up near a town called "whiskey city USA" (Seagrams and Schenley distillers were there)  When they would hot load the sour mash the whole town would smell like sour mash.
 
Now that schenley is no longer, and seagrams is no longer bottled in Lawrenceburg, and Indiana Distillers are there the smell is not the same as the sour mash whiskey.
 
The smell of cedar brings back memories of my grandma's place, also the smell of heating oil.

Smells from my childhood;
Clean Air!!!!
Coal Smoke. Our house had a coal furnace and when you added coal, the smoke had a distinctive smell.
Smell of the pines at Scout Camp.
Clean Sheets that had been hung outside on the clothes line to dry.
Soup cooking in the Elementary School Cafeteria.
Tomato Vines. The vines and/or leaves in the tomato patch have a beautiful smell."The only 2 things that money can't buy is true love and home grown tomatoes"!
Ozone before a rain shower/storm.
Our town had a Tannery that gave off a sulfur smell.
The town 9 miles away had a papermill. Could smell it when the wind was coming from that direction.
Lived in Uniontown PA for a while. Could smell the Boney Piles in Clymer from the coal mines.

Venice Beach had a distinct aroma when I was a child.  It could have been the seaweed on the beach or the mussels.  It's cleaner now and gone is that scent that meant we're almost there.
 
Anyone know what the inside of a golf ball smells like?

Ditto the smell of pines from girl scout camp
Baby powder-Mom used it on herself after a bath
Lilies of the valley-used to pick them and proudly present them to my Mom
Smoke from a pipe-Dad memories
I can always tell when we are near a body of water while traveling-I grew up directly across the street from Lake Michigan and that smell reminds me of the summers of my youth, swimming and hanging out at the beach.

The  Seaside Heights boardwalk on the Jersey shore. A combo of ocean air, sausage & peppers, pizza and french fries! I am transported back to my childhood.

Double-Ditto the smell of pines from girl scout camp. 

Don,
  If you want to regain the old grain-Mash smell from Lawrenceburg, IN, try driving into Owensboro,KY from the east side. Barton's  is distilled and stored for aging there, and their are large grain tanks along the Ohio River there that ship grain in and out. We noticed the pungent ordor as we passed the Barton's buildings and then the port facilities on U S 60 as you come in from the east.  It is the Larenceburg atmosphere all over again.
 
Driving into Hershey, PA an a warm, humid, Summer day can bring a whole new overpowering sense of smell regarding C H O C O L A T E !!

Joe-LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honeysuckle.  The left side of our front porch was covered with honeysuckle vines.
 

The Boy Scout camp I went to was heavily populated with juniper trees. The smell of gin takes me back to that - this is why I don't drink gin.

joerogo

Double-Ditto the smell of pines from girl scout camp. 

Were you one of those "Midnight Commandos" from the neighboring Boy Scout Camp?

joerogo


Double-Ditto the smell of pines from girl scout camp. 

 
I loved that my mom was a GS troop leader, one of only 3 boys in the whole summer camp.

Al
The new distiller makes spirits but not whiskey, there is nothing like the smell of sour mash.  I forgot about Hershey, PA during the summer.
 
 
There is a company in NKY called Wild Flavors you drive by there and never know what you are going to smell.  One day butterscotch, one day orange, everyday is another smell.  It is a fun game to play to try and guess the flavor before you drive past it.

Foodbme

joerogo

Double-Ditto the smell of pines from girl scout camp. 

Were you one of those "Midnight Commandos" from the neighboring Boy Scout Camp?

 
Hey, I was no Boy Scout.

CajunKing

joerogo


Double-Ditto the smell of pines from girl scout camp. 

I loved that my mom was a GS troop leader, one of only 3 boys in the whole summer camp.

 
And you didn't have to go home covered in pine tar

I bought a guitar in Montreal in the 80's & the store threw in a brand new no name guitar case with it.
I opened it up to put the guitar in & the case smelled just like those Halloween costumes your parents bought you in the early 60's.
it still has a little of that smell today. that & 30 years of beer & cigarette smoke.

Everytime I go into the local CVS, I open a bottle of Vitalis, for a sniff, many memories. Does anyone anywhere still use the stuff??

There is a cologne that is quite strong and I just went blank on its name.  Pink box, REALLY strong.
 
I call it Bubbie in a Bottle.
 
Off to go look it up.  I'll be back.

Finding it wasn't as easy as I thought.
 
But I did....  White Shoulders.
 
As much as I don't like it, whenever I happen to catch a wiff, it brings a smile to me.
 
My grandmother passed away in 1969 and that scent brings her right back to me.

As a kid I loved the smell of Old Spice, I still wear it!

The soybean oil mill in Jonestown, MS, where I grew up smelled like a ham baking. It is really a nice smell that brings good memories

Driving through Gilroy, CA reminds me of Thanksgiving.

mbrookes


The soybean oil mill in Jonestown, MS, where I grew up smelled like a ham baking. It is really a nice smell that brings good memories

 
There was also one in Helena AR - it smelled like that for about a mile radius from it -

I second Honeysuckle and Old Spice and add Balsam Fir Christmas Tree and Chanel no. 5...

Coffee percolating while bacon is frying, perhaps my favorite smell of all to wake up to! Been a long time.

Rain.  Playing in mud puddles as it was raining.  :)