smells that jog your memory

Freshly picked tomatoes ...takes me straight back to childhood ...my father growing them for my mother (he never ate any)

The smell of bacon frying takes me back to childhood too ...waking up to the smell on a Sunday morning was a special treat. (Couldn't often afford to buy any!)

The smell of cigars reminds me of childhood Christmas as well.My grandfather always got a box of cigars at Christmas and would smoke them all day.I have just got to smell a cigar and it takes me back years.
Coty L'Aimont and Blue Grass were my favourite perfumes in my youth.Also Ma Griffe.I first bought a bottle when I had just found out I was pregnant with my first child.

My old grade 5 teacher, Jack Webber, used to smoke at his desk (as they did in those days) and his cigarettes had an aromatic flavour which clung to his clothes so when you came up to have work marked you'd smell him. Whenever I smell cigarette smoke with that same aromatic flavour it brings back nice memories of a great teacher.

There's also a tree called Durian that they use for firewood (and other uses - fruit, building timber) in Bali. I use it in my workshp and when I'm cutting or drilling it if it gets warm I smell that same sweet smell.

PpppaRob Isn't there a fruit called Durian? It's supposed to smell quite evil. I think they have one in Kew Gardens.

baNANA - Durian is the king of fruits! Any further away than about 6 feet and it smells like rotting animal flesh... novelist Anthony Burgess said that eating durian is "like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory."

However... when you're squatting on the ground with Balinese friends and the juice is dripping down your arms it's ambrosia! The Balinese use the thinnings from the tree as kindling and firewood, harvest fruit from the time the tree is about 4 years old until is stops bearing, then the trees are cut for timber. It's imported to Australia for door and window frames, and as a musical instrument maker I use it for the necks of mandolins, ukuleles and tenor guitars because it's a sustainable resource and it's nice timber for the purpose.

The aroma of a box hedge takes me right back to my granny's garden. There were small box hedges round all the beds where she grew so many different kinds of soft fruit which we got the job of picking. And, like so many others - my dad's tobacco - St Bruno.

PoppaRob Thanks for your info about the Durian I know I'd heard about it before Im just off to Waitrose to get one!

PoppaRob is this the fruit you are not allowed to eat on public transport in Singapore?

I love (loved) the smell of Johnson's Baby Lotion in the pink squeezy bottle. I say (loved) because I bought some recently and guess what - they've changed its scent and its not nearly so nice. Why do they have to do that?

I have always used Pears soap and when I come to England I always stock up. The scent of that too is slightly different now its made in India but I still love the soap anyway.

Does anyone remember Tabu perfume? I loved it when I was 16 and thought it was so sophisticated!

Jacey, that's the one... mind you Singapore thrives on rules and bylaws!

Specki Yes! Tabu, we thought we were "scarlet women" when we smelt of Tabu!

As a young child I remember the perfume [pong] of Evening in Paris. My mother was a beauty, and had a stunning, crimson evening dress that she wore for parties. As she bent down to say goodnight, the perfume lingered for an eternity. The bottle was purple, I believe.

Californian poppy and Goya gardenia. In the 40s and 50s I don't think there was the money around for really expensive perfumes.

Yes flowerfriend you can still get Pears soap in the UK - the texture is still lovely and gentle - the perfume is slightly altered - not quite so spicy, but its basically the same. Whenever I go to the Uk I buy it in bulk. Do buy some if you can because availability is diminishing rapidly! About 10 years ago there was talk of it being discontinued, so I worked out how many bars I would need to buy to see me through to my demise! At the 11th hour the company transferred the manufacture to India and that is where it's now made. I dislike modern soap - too many additives! Nothing can compare with the clean feeling you get from Pears!

Hi there. I have just joined this site and I think it's great. Memories of smells... Yes, I remember Evening in Paris and Californian Poppy both of which was sold in "Woolies" Also I remember Avon's little yellow cream pot of Topaz. Was all we could afford in the early 60's!

The smell of autumn leaves takes me right back to when I was seven and was evacuated to the country from a town near London. That was where I discovered that I am a country girl at heart.

Welcome norfolkgal. For me, it's the smell of freshly mowed grass, honeysuckle after a downpour when the sun warms the flowers, an autumn bonfire of raked leaves, babies and puppies' lovely scent, and the memory of my grandad's pipe of Old Holborn tobacco

Two smells remind me of when I started secondary school. First the smell of new leather because of my satchel which had a strong leathery smell and who else recalls the smell of wet gabardine macks hanging in the cloakroom on a rainy day.
Even now a whiff of either of these takes me back 50 years.

mrsmopp; saw the first few words of your post and immediately knew you were going to mention the satchel because as I was reading it I was 'there' in the moment with my new satchel. I was so proud of it! No leather has ever smelt the same since, though.

Having only had a very brief visit to our pre-renovated cottage 8 years ago, when my son visited last month from the States, the first thing he said when walking into our now completely overhauled stone cottage was.... "Wow, this smells just like Grandma's house!". We're still trying to figure that out!

Oil lamps always remind me of my Grandmother. She was born in 1864 and I was 16 when she died aged 84.She lived in one very cluttered room with no electricity when I was very young but moved to a warden controlled one room flat in her later years. My father was a carpenter, joiner and cabinet maker and sometimes he woul take me to buy wood so the smell of sawn wood always reminds me of him. It's so nice to be able to share these memories with my friends on Gransnet.

My uncle worked in a small machine tool factory and the smell of oil takes me back to the days when I'd get a hug from him when he was still in his overalls.

Anno - That made me

'White musk' is my smell of the sixties.....

I have smelt durian and pegged it as not just drains but warm drains!

My Nana always put 4711 on her hankies. My Dad smoked a pipe so that smell is simply him. I went skiing at 16 and used Piz Buin sun cream which had a very distinctive smell. On the not so good smells there was cabbage cooking for school lunch (by morning playtime!!) and Jeyes fluid in the school toilets -yeek.
Baby talc really takes me back and I now I buy sachets with the smell and put it in the draws with all the 'spare' baby stuff that lives at our house.