Memories from way back

sodapopTCP for me too
did your mum ever put a bread poultice on you to draw out a boil by gum it was hot

biglouis

The smell which takes me back is that of malt. When we were kids my mother used to get huge jars of cod liver oil and malt from the clinic. After the war it was popular as a cheap dietary supplement for a generation of undernourished children who needed a high carbohydrate feed as well as more vitamins.

She made me and my sister take a huge spoonful each day. It was quite a ritual. My sister hated it and had to be persuaded and cajoled. I loved the taste and often sneaked an extra spoonful when my mother's back was truned. I believe this product has recently been re-launched.

Yes, I remember cod liver oil and malt, I quite liked it as well as those small bottles of thick orange juice. Mum used to take me to a clinic in town to get it

I hated Syrup of Figs, another staple to 'keep you regular'. I still dislike figs today.

There was still rationing for years after the war, no oranges or anything grown overseas in the shops for a while.
We had home-grown veg, eggs from the farm so were better off than many.

The word ointment conjures up a particular smell to me and it wasn't until I had my first DC that I recognised it as zinc and castor oil cream, useful when changing bsbies' nappies.

Germolene still available in tubes but is not so easy to find now fir some reason. It's the best antiseptic cream imo.

School ink did have an odd smell HelterSkelter but it was often made from animal bone charcoal.
When I was told that I disliked it even more.

Germolene is always available in PoundLand and also Savers.
cost about £1.50 for a small tube.

The smell of wallflowers on a sunny day. I'm straight back there as a 5 year old.

I loved the smell of niva cream - not sure it smells the same now

TCP
Duraglit
Germoline
Freshly mown grass
4711 cologne
Tweed Parfum
Bonne Bell 10-0-6 astringent
Anne French cleansing milk

The last 4 are memories due to my Saturday job in Boots the Chemist. Lots of sniffing in the stockroom

I still use TCP, nothing like it for sore throats. I also still use Germaline, but I can’t find the bright pink one anymore, now it’s white and doesn’t smell the same.

I used to collect red rose petals and seep them in water to make perfume. Roses just don’t seem to smell much anymore, and no, I haven’t lost my sense of smell!

That, or magnesium sulfate paste! Or kaolin paste, we had boils on our legs, I think it was the terrible school food, we came back from boarding school with them!

Calamine lotion. I am very fair skinned and, despite my mother's best efforts with the (useless) suncream of the day and being made to put on a T shirt while we ate out picnic, a visit to the seaside nearly always ended with some painful sunburn and calamine lotion was applied to soothe it. Old fashioned bathroom/medicine cabinets in general had a distinctive smell, too.
When l was small, my grandparents owned a newsagents' shop. The mixture of confectionery and pipe tobacco is a very evocative smell.
Finally, an odour that is a rather less welcome memory - that of the public telephone box. The combination of stale cigarette smoke and urine is unforgettable and, thankfully, consigned to history.

Freshly baked bread.
Camphor oil that I had to wear in a bag around my neck to keep away colds. I couldn't wait for it to evaporate, when I used to keep quiet about it, but mum soon found it.

Red diesel! (My first boyfriend was a tractor mechanic).
Also gin, but not for obvious reasons. Aged 15 I regularly babysit for a very glamorous couple who would have gin and tonics with their friends before leaving to go out for dinner - leaving the gin dregs in crystal glasses - which I would wash up (and sniff)

I’ve just remembered - the smell of coal fire smoke. Took me right back - smelt it near a sister’s house in the Yorkshire Dales one December a few years ago.

I had four children and particularly remember the smell of Cuticura talc. I just loved it.

Not a happy memory.
The smell of Box hedges in the sun take me back to being 8 years old at boarding school. Even now, many years later, in can reduce me to tears.

I was prone to ear infections and my father gave me a spoonful of gin to help me sleep. Now I hate the smell and can’t drink anything with gin in it.

The smell of tomato plants and geraniums when you brushed past them in my french grandmother's greenhouse.

I still use TCP for sore throats and for spots!

Brut aftershave. All the boys wore it in the seventies. Lavender furniture polish in a round tin. Mum seemed to polish furniture a lot! Germaline of course. Pipe tobacco. Our neighbour smoked a pipe and the lovely aroma drifted over our hedge.

Mum used 'Mansion House' brand of red polish on the back doorstep I recall and 'Windowlene' on the windows. There was also a good stock of 'Kiwi' shoe polish in various colours with a strong and not particularly pleasent smell.

Dad used rather pongy 'Friar's Balsam' to counteract colds, and bunged up sinuses. He put a few drops into a small bowl of very hot water, towel over the head and sniffed and snorted the vapours until he found relief (or not).

Pencil shavings and the smell of wooden schooldesks can transport me back to childhood as does the smell of lilac bushes.

JudyBloom

Joannapiano, I have been trying to find Pond's Cold Cream and I can't find it anywhere. Please could you tell me where you are able to buy it from?

Boots chemist. My flying daughter brings large tubs from America for me as we both love it.

I was interested to read that the square logo on Imperial Soap was designed as a sort if soap dish to stop it going soft and it’s meant to be placed upside down.

Not exactly ‘fragrances’ - the stench of perming lotion when my
Mum and Aunt did their hair , and the smell of tea towels being boiled in a saucepan-
🤮

Babs03

Does anyone remember the lovely orange juice they would had out to mums at the clinic. I remember loving the taste.

Oooh, yes! I absolutely loved that juice and have never found any other juice that comes remotely close to it.

Redhead56

The cream of the top of milk in school I can still remember the smell I loved the milk at school with a biscuit.

My dad’s greenhouse the smell of the tomato vines was absolutely gorgeous and I loved it.

My best memory is when running home from junior school I could smell Scouse my mum often made. She cooked the meat and veg on the stove with a little gravy powder made a pie crust (to make it more filling). Mum would then put it in a large baking dish and bake it off in the oven. It was absolutely heaven I still make mine the same way.

I remember my great uncle's greenhouse and the smell of tomatoes, I still love it!

The smell of the Christmas tree when it has just been brought into the house brings back all the marvellous Christmases of my childhood.

Raspberry jam boiling conjures up the summer when I picked our raspberries or helped Mummy pick them when I was smaller and then helped make the jam.

Cetavalon was the antiseptic of my childhood. I don't think it is used in Denmark at all. The smell of surgical spirit conjures up Daddy's consulting room.

Lavender floor polish: Mondays when the lino floors were polished.