What is your experience with odor and memories?

The high desert in Southern California where the pine trees would get the wind from the valley. The smell of the pines and rustling pines, fun when I was young.

That made me smile. There’s a stretch of road coming in to Lake Placid where I roll down the window to smell the balsam. Plus the horse show smells of horse crap, but it’s a nice smell.

Skunk smell always reminds me of coming back to the farm I grew up on at night nad it is a lovely, evocative smell.

The smell of this one kind of lotion is always quite calming and comforting for me. It smells like home. I’m not entirely sure, but I think my mom used to use it. Whatever the reason, it works wonders when I’m nervous, stressed, or hurt. The funny thing is, she was never all that comforting or reassuring when I was little…
Each time the seasons change around here, there’s a new fragrance in the air. Spring is the most wonderful smell of all. It just smells like new beginnings. It brings me back to when I was a little kid, doing all sorts of weird things in the yard.
Northern MN has a special smell, all its own. I used to spend my summers at a camp up there. The pine trees, the lake, the dining hall… It smells like happiness. (Of course, it never gets above 80* up there, so that certainly gives it a special fragrance.)

Old Spice and gun cleaning fluid. Fond memories of my father.

I’ve wondered that too. Great question. It is also interesting to consider how pregnant women have both a heightened sense of smell and heightened (and more volatile) emotions. All kinds of things came up for me when I was pregnant. I wonder if the heightened smell had anything to do with it.

The smell of rain on hot cement is the most pleasant smell I know. I don’t have a specific memory, except pleasant summer days as a small child in the city, before we moved to the country where there was no sidewalks.

Well I find that where I live every man has the same cologne. So sometimes that takes me way back to my first bf seven years ago! Sometimes the smell of old antiques takes me back to my grandma’s apartment in Sao Paulo… and thats how far I can think for now :)

The perfume my granny uses! It’s a subtle floral scent. I sometimes catch it on a random passerby, and it never fails to turn my head. I would love to wear that same scent someday. (:

Speaking of perfume, my friends and I used to douse ourselves in Charlie before hitting the discos in the 70’s. The smell of Charlie makes me want to do the bump!

My mothers purse always smelled like Wrigleys Doublemint and Spearmint gum.
To this day the smell of that gum reminds me of my childhood.

Fresh cut grass and cow manure take me back to my childhood on our farm here in Missouri.

Chlorine reminds me of my best friends pool when we were teenagers.

I have tons of these….I’m a sensitive smeller.

Whenever I smell the interior of a brand new car, it reminds me of dreams I had as a kid, I wanted my own car from a very early age, we’re talking 5yrs old here.

Cigars instantly remind me of my grandfather. And coffee, reminds me of his wife, my grandmother. Mothballs are the scent of my Aunt Phyllis. I love those scents.

My father had a particular scent I haven’t been able to find again since his death. I miss that scent.

@cookieman Mothballs, gross, haven’t thought about those in years now that my gparents are gone.

@KNOWITALL: I know – not what you think of when you think “pleasant smell”, but I have a certain fondness for them.

One of my childhood smells was the south side Chicago stockyards on a hot summer day. Kind of took your appetite away. I suppose that’s not the case anymore. Probably Omaha has that special trait today.

@Skaggfacemutt The smell of rain on hot asphalt takes me straight back to my 6th birthday. I taught myself to ride my new bike on the street in front of our house during an April shower.

Palmolive dish soap… Grandma’s kitchen.
Original Lysol… Nightmare preschool.

The smell of new growing grass after rain in the spring when the angleworms (a.k.a. earthworms) are stirring up the soil.

Hmm… I have many odour associations.

One of my worst associations: Very old or rotten potatoes. I was frequently abused/confined in our garden cellar, under the house, as a child. There was always that rotten potato smell down there. To this day, I get an anxious nausea when smelling that; on the odd occasion I will get flashbacks. It is much better than it used to be though. I used to always get flashbacks and/or involuntary abreactions as soon as that smell hit my nose.

Some of my more positive associations:
– That popular coconut sun tan oil (can’t remember the name) always reminds me of my Mom. She always used that stuff every summer when I was child/teen.
– There is this candle made by Yankee Candle, called Christmas Eve. It’s a very nice familiar smell. I don’t know what memory the smell first came from but I love it. I wish I could remember why.
– Freshly washed/dried white linen or cotton. It reminds me of being taken to a hospital after being rescued from a very traumatic event. I remember feeling so safe there, in that nice clean warm bed…and the nurses were so wonderful to me.
– Camp fire and indoor fire from an open-fireplace/hearth. The camp fire smell reminds me of the good times with my dad, when we’d go camping. The fireplace smell reminds me of my early childhood, feeling the warm comfort at my grandma’s house when there were snowstorms. Dad would drive us there, only a few miles up the road, whenever the snowstorms cut our power and we’d all sleep in front of grandma’s fireplace.
– Freshly baked bread. When we got to visit my Mom, she’d make us fresh bread. Love that smell. Reminds me of the joy in spending time with her as a kid.

Musty attic smells take me to a bad place from my childhood.

There’s a plant that has a smell that takes me to my grandmother’s yard.