Tastes/Smells that bring back vivid memories?

[GirlinContempt]

I've been sick the last couple of days, and I wanted something hot to drink. Didn't want coffee, wasn't feeling like herbal teas. So, for the first time in years I brewed myself a pot of strong english tea, complete with lemons, a bit of sugar, and a dash of milk. The first sip took me back to about age 5. My grandmother used to take me to my 'Aunt' Rite's place. I think she was really my double-great aunt, very old, very British. It was great, she had a pool in her building, and we'd swim till we were exhausted, then she'd serve perfect tea and biscuits.
She died a great many years ago, but a single sip of tea is enough to bring me back into her apartment, I can smell the chlorine, my eyes start burning, and I remember learning all her tips and tricks for great tea service like it was yesterday.

What's yours?

[Left Is Write]

1. If I were to smell Final Net hairspray, it would take me right back to 9th grade.

I have happy memories associated with food smells such as hamburger browning with onions, turkey roasting, ham and meatballs, mashed potatoes, gravy, cinnamon rolls, fresh bread, and chocolate chip cookies.

Eucalyptus and mint remind me of my honeymoon.

[GirlinContempt]

4. Cool

:)

[MichiganVote]

19. Aqua or hot pink cans...my sisters used it all the time b/f dates in HS

[Left Is Write]

44. I used a non-aerosol Final Net. You might be thinking of Aqua Net...

which I also used back in the late 70s and 80s.

[KitchenWitch]

2. The smell of Ensure (liquid nutrition) turns my stomach

Of course I lived on Ensure for about a year when I was being treated for cancer.

Oh, sorry, I suppose you wanted happy memories.

[GirlinContempt]

3. Any kind are fine

And, it's sort of a happy memory, in that, it's over, right?

[KitchenWitch]

5. My mind is kind of focused on the cancer thing

I am coming up on the 20 year anniversary of the diagnosis this week.

[KitchenWitch]

6. True enough!

:)

Every day above ground is a good one.

[GirlinContempt]

11. Good call

:)

[ohiosmith]

7. Cherry vodka.

[BarenakedLady]

23. If you mean what I think you mean

Same with me and Fuzzy Navels.

:puke:

[Shell Beau]

8. Fresh cut grass reminds me of summer time when I was little!

Those were the days!

[gemdem]

41. Same here

That and the taste/aroma of tomatoes on the vine. To this day, I still love to bite into a tomato fresh and warm off the summer vine.

Tag and baseball games, catching lightning bugs, playing ghost in the graveyard, Dad filling up the swimming pool... My childhood was far from idyllic, but in the right moment a smell, a taste, a sound can prompt some good memories. Treasured memories found among the more difficult ones.

[querelle]

9. Melting Chocolate Chips

In my mom's chocolate chip cookies. They were the best. People just don't bake from scratch anymore, which is kid of sad. I guess nobody has time to do that these days. I think I'll e-mail Mom tonight to ask her for her recipe. I miss those cookies so much.........

Q

[gemdem]

36. I bake every Sunday

So my kids will have something good through the week. Sometimes it's banana bread, sometimes it's cookies, but it's something. Making cookies and memories for the kids. (And how many other kids can say that their dad bakes cookies for school lunches?) :-)

[MonkeyFunk]

10. Ludens cough drops and gin

remind me of my grandma.

[GirlinContempt]

12. Interesting combo

[Xipe Totec]

13. The smell of jasmin, on a warm summer night

Always reminds me Texas.

[dysfunctional press]

14. smell is the sense most closely associated to memory.

i often have floods of memories when i happen on particular smells...musty basements, acrylic paint, certain perfumes, etc...

[Little Wing]

15. Leaves remind me of playing manhunt until well after dark

[carly denise pt deux]

16. Shasta Cherry cola, any flavor jolly ranchers, and that gum that was like rainbow zebra colors

reminds me of my childhood

[hippywife]

17. Fruit Stripe Gum?

[carly denise pt deux]

33. yeah! thats it

that stuff was the official gum of my childhood
Carly

[MichiganVote]

18. Ice cold crystal winter nights...ice skating at the park on school nights

Blades scraping, hats flying off, cold aching toes, fire in the shedhouse for warmth, park guy brining in the logs to put on the fire, family dog on the ice, stars overhead, crunchy sparkles at our feet

Pure bliss...

[hippywife]

20. Noxema.

Was just thinking this yesterday. I stoppe wearing mak-up last spring but last week I decided to start again. I bought Cover Girl foundation and loose powder. They both smelled like Noxema and I haven't used it for over 20 years.

[Xipe Totec]

21. Vick's Vapor Rub

reminds me of a loving home.

[bluethruandthru]

34. Me too...

Mom always put that on our chests when we had colds.

[bridgit]

42. there it is...

[Taverner]

22. The smell of beautiful tropical flowers and raw sewage

Ahhhh Bangkok Thailand :)

[Xipe Totec]

29. Smells like Veracruz to me...

:hi:

[LanternWaste]

24. Polo Classic

Waaaayyy back in HS during my Jr. year ('83) my gf bought me a bottle of Polo for Christmas. She loved it and I got a lot of compliments on it.

About a year and a half ago, I was in Dillard's and lo and behold, Polo is STILL being sold! So I bought a bottle of it, sprayed some on the next morning and MY GOD!!! Memories came flooding back into my mind as though long forgotten synapses were suddenly re-awakened. Wedgies in the halls, Aerosmith blasting from Trans-Ams in the parking lot, pink, fuzzy sweaters just over Gloria Vanderbilt's (the gals, not me... just wanted to make that clear...), and the sweet, sweet smell of urinal cakes. Ahhh...

Anyway, I buy Polo exclusively now, get complimented on it at least once a week regardless of where I am or what I'm doing, and figure that the adage is correct, "Classics never go outta style."

[u4ic]

46. That takes me back to high school, too

:hi:

[dolo amber]

25. Fried bologna

:puke:

ALWAYS hated that smell. Being the child of 2 WVA hillbillies, I smelled it quite often growing up. When I was knocked up with my oldest, the 2 other ladies who had apts in my house would regale me daily with the odors of Apt 1: Every known smelly beauty product known to man in aggregious quantities all at once and, Apt 2: Fried bologna. And I had to run (read: waddle) the gauntlet down the hall
with my fat pregnant ass every morning and hope beyond hope I could keep my shredded wheat down. x(

Now, merely the THOUGHT of the smell makes me turn green. :cry:

Also: Dentyne gum. I heard a Dentyne commercial once while at my grandpa's house. Whilst sitting on the toilet and reaching for the (absurdly high) TP roll. Now anytime I smell that smell (and conversely, occasionally when reaching for the TP) I get a total flashback of sitting on that potty at age like...6. :D

[QMPMom]

26. Orange Blossoms

The smell of them takes me straight back to my grandparent's house. I think it's one of the reasons I love Miss Dior Cherie perfume so much.

[Bzzzz]

27. Bactine...

[conscious evolution]

28. Sweeping compound

You know the brown sawdust looking stuff janitors use to sweep uo with?
Whenever I smell that I flash back to my first day in school when I was a kid.

[Xipe Totec]

30. I love the smell of bacon in the morning. It smells like....

Hickory....

[Courtesy Flush]

31. Barnyard smells

Just today I stopped at a house with a pen for cattle. The smell took me back to 1964 (or thereabouts), when my mom had to get her life together, so she sent us to stay with her in-laws (no relation to me) in Jackson, MS on a farm. Back then, Jackson was really backward. I don't think I've been there since then, but I assume it's changed :)

To this day, I don't remember any of the people, or what kind of farm it was, but the smells take me right back there.

[gemdem]

37. Along this line, smells when out in farm country

Reminds me of summer drives that my dad would take us on when I was a kid, or trips with my grandpa and grandma when we'd travel up to Ft. Recovery (OH). Those memories make me smile.

[likesmountains 52]

32. Old buildings (1940-1950) take me back to my elementary school..

[GenDem]

35. Jean Nate after bath splash

Reminds me of a dear great aunt who I loved dearly. I used to spend the weekends with her and a splash of Jean Nate after a bath was required. I just saw it again in a drug store and had to take the cap off and take a good whiff of memories. It smelled like happiness. :loveya:

[nightbloomer]

39. sidny

Sorry to go OT -

How is your little Sidney? - been worried about her.

[GenDem]

52. Much, much better!!!!

After your post, I put in a call to the vet...waited 2 hours for him to call back, but in the two hours she had markedly improved. He said to continue to keep a very close eye on her -- which we did -- and if she didn't go to the bathroom we were to bring her in. Well, at that very time, about 3pm yesterday, she started to eat and drink normally. And she went out and went to the bathroom. She is now into her third day on the antibiotics, and we have changed to homemade food. I see improvement every hour. She is very close to being her old self again.

Thanks, for all your concern. I tried to PM you with this, but your posts are too low. :hug:

[Danger Mouse]

38. There is a certain cleaning solution whose smell sends chills down my spine...

I am not sure what it is called, but if I ever smell it again, I will know.
You see, a few years ago, when I was living in Baltimore, my friends and I lived in a certain apartment building that had a high population of senior citizens.
One night, while in my friends apartment, I noticed a peculiar smell in the hallway.
It grew stronger. It hovered in the air. It was a cloying, sickly-sweet smell.
I asked my friend if he knew anything about it, and he said that a person on that floor had died, and the smell was the cleaning solution they used to cover up the smell of the dead body.
The smell made me gag after that. It was disgusting enough as it was, but now in my mind it is closely linked with the stench of death and decay...

[Redstone]

40. Brandy. Our Grannie had us swish some around our mouth when we had a toothache.

Of course, our teeth ALWAYS hurt when we went to visit Grannie.

Redstone

[bridgit]

43. Campbell's Tomato Soup...

[WritingIsMyReligion]

45. My grandmother's dryer sheet.

No, seriously. She uses this wacko shit with a very cloying, "sweet" smell, which makes all my clothes, on the rare occasions when I am staying with her and she puts them through the laundry, smell like I doused them in stolen perfume or something.

HOWEVER, I once had the craziest dream, which I think was inspired by that smell. It was good-crazy in a way, you know, and in my dream I could smell that distinct scent (of dryer sheet, yes, except it was perfume in the dream). The only mildly homosexual/bisexual dream I ever had, featuring...Grandma's dryer sheet.

:eyes:

:evilgrin:

[momophile]

47. burning trash takes me back to the Peace Corps...

I love that smell...

[swag]

48. Blood sweetened with shit

brings back vivid memories of the Cantos of Ezra Pound.

[auntAgonist]

49. home made potato soup

reminds me of my grandmother's house. Not cream of potato, but chunks, with carrots and onions .. it is SO good.

aA

[tuvor]

50. Freshly-chopped basil reminds me of high school, ca. 1981.

No idea why. My mom always used the dried stuff, if at all.

[Wapsie B]

51. Dormitory hallways

filled with a combination of smells; incense hanging heavily in the air, along with a hint of marijuana, and a healthy dose of vomit on a Saturday night.

[Omphaloskepsis]

53. My grandpa had the Old Spice action up in this bitch...

Great, I watched my father get shot, and I held his father while rushing him to the hospital after his heart failed. Life can be somewhat of a bitch at times.

[HoneyBee]

54. Bactine®

Reminds me of mom tending to my skinned knees.