Some smells make us feel nostalgic. What kind of scent does that for you and why?

Vanilla extract always reminds me of being a kid and my mom making cookies. That smell makes me absolutely melt and makes me so happy!!

Rain, it reminds me of my childhood jumping in the puddles. I didn’t care if I came in soaking wet.

my mom did though!

The receptors in your nose have a direct expressway to the part in your brain that stores memory. That’s why odor can trigger the most vibrant of memories almost instantaneously.

Smell & Memory: HowStuffWorks

Ahhh… soothing scents effervecing the heavens, transporting us back in time of dreams and longing.
My first love used to chew BigRed gum all the time, even now I cannot walk by a beautiful woman chewing on a piece of big red without wondering where she is now. Last I heard from her was 22 years ago, but ohhh what a sweet memory to carry with me.

Whenever I open a new book I can smell the ink. This smell brings me back to my high school days when I took an offset printing class. That was one of my favorite courses from back then, and it inspired me to study Graphic Design in college. Hooray for books! :)

The smells that bring back childhood memories are crayons and band-aids.

The smell of fried chicken makes me nostalgic for my Grandma’s Sunday dinners.

I lurve these answers so far! Ahhh, meeemoriesssssss!

Pomegranate Burt Bee’s chap stick

I have a very good friend who I used to have a huge crush on. The crush lasted probably 3 years. Whenever I smell the deodorant he used (some flavor of Old Spice) I go weak in the knees.

The very beginning of a summer rain on hot asphalt reminds me of being a kid in Florida. And the smell of muscadine grapes reminds me of spending summers at my grandparents’ house in North Carolina.

There was a smell I would occasionally smell over the last decade or so. It was familiar from childhood, but I couldn’t figure out what is was.

I thought I had traced it down to the groundcover plant woodruff, which gives off this odor when it is stressed or dying.

Then I visited the place where I grew up summers, West Denver, in June and I realized it was the smell of cut alfalfa that I was remembering from those good summers days.

Interestingly it also gives off the smell only when it has been cut.

Magic Markers. Just that brand. 4th grade all over again. Also, rubber cement.

It’s almost the time of year that The Smell Of Spring shows up. It always takes me by surprise when it happens, even though I know it’s coming sometime in February. There’s only enough of something going up my nostrils that zaps up into my brain and I’ll think, “Spring’salmosthere!YAY!” and then it’s gone. I’ve been aware of it since I was a child.

Anyone here remember sniffing the dittos at school…cold & wet, fresh off the ditto machine? Definitely nostalgic!

Purell hand sanitizer always puts me back in fourth grade. There was a bottle of the stuff on the windowsill in Mrs. Hall’s classroom and we would use it after coming in from recess. She always had a squirt bottle too, to spray us with water if we came in sweaty on hot days.
Mrs Hall…I wonder where she is now…For a while she was like an aunt to me.

The smell of creosote bushes after a summer rain reminds me of certain people and parties and desert hiking. When I smell anything anywhere with creosote I think of Tucson.

The smell of chicory reminds me of southeast Texas and one side of my extended family. So does seafood gumbo.

Cinnamon reminds me of autumn because that’s when I start drinking coffee again each year.

Clove reminds me of french toast and clove cigarettes and people I knew who smoked them.

Fresh cut grass with some wild onion thrown in takes me back to summers as a kid. As do the smells of the woods, fresh cut alfalfa and orchard grass hay, gasoline/4wheeler exhaust, chlorine, tea boiling on the stove, and my horses (which I love because just being around them makes me feel younger – which means no worries :D)

The smell of wood in the hot sun after a rain. I spent my childhood summers on an island, and that smell brings me right back there. Also, the smell of beer on breath reminds me of that too… my dad’s friends all smelt the same, and I was in high school before I figured out why!

Polo and Paco Rabin men’s colognes (not sure if I spelled the Paco R correctly).
Suntan lotion.
The beach.

The scent of the sea pushes my relaxation button almost instantly.

I also love the unmistakable lake smell. That makes me think of camping, swimming and other outdoor fun. It makes me smile.

I love the smell of fresh lavendar crushed in my fingers in the hot sun. That says summer to me.

burning leaves. the greatest smell of fall approaching.
sunday dinner of roast beef and onions with gravy.
hand soap aroma at places like day cares and churches
barber shop after shaves and lotions that smell like “brut” and “old spice”
campfire smoke
the smell of a liquor store that also sold candy and chips and sodas (yes, there was a time)

@Marina Just thinking of the lake smell calms me and puts me in that happy place. :)

Elmers glue. It reminds me of 3rd grade and a certain girl who used to eat it. Or would it be “drink” it?

The smell of jasmine and juniper bushes remind me of walking home from elementary school.

I love the smell of FIRE
and the OCEAN

and BROWNIES

@chyna Oo, libray paste. I can smell it now. The temptation to eat it was enormous; it smelled so inviting! And back then who knew from non-toxic?

@Grisson…I work on a farm and for me the smell of freshly cut alfalfa means late nights and humping 70 lb bales on the rack.

the smell of a field of corn, after a summer rain, when the sun pops back out and beats down for a bit…ain’t bad

Fresh cut hay does smell good,

Eucalyptus reminds me of elementary school.

Coconut suntan lotion reminds of the beach as a kid.
It seemed like everyone used to use that kind in the 80s.

The smell of freshly cut wood reminds me of wood shop during finals.

Library books remind me of the countless hours I’ve spent in libraries. Lovely.

Those books/posters/stickers you got from book orders in elementary school have a certain smell too. My niece thought me a bit crazy when I was sniffing her books. I can remember the excitement of coming into class and seeing that big ol’ box on the teacher’s desk. And the freebie you’d get if you had ordered a lot!

Everyone has a certain smell, best captured in their pillow.
I’m a big pillow sniffer when I miss people.

@Nimis – So true about the pillow scent! haha.

I love the smell of diesel in the morning. It smells like… the truck parades at Mardi Gras.

The smell of the French Quarter, which you really can’t get unless you are there.

Obsession = girlfriend from summer after 8th grade

That burnt toast smell that comes from boiler rooms or wherever reminds me of high school.

Coffee (probably Folgers) that has permeated a house reminds me of my grandparents’ house. In fact, I thought that was just what their house smelled like.

Sweetgrass(?) reminds me of my motorcycle commutes on Erwin Rd between Chapel Hill and Durham.

paste and coloring crayons = old school rooms

Anyone else remember the smell of freshly mimiographed paper handouts in school?
Or a fresh box of crayola crayons or elmers glue?

@cardinal: we must share some common memories! Did not see your posting.

@cdwccrn: Fresh Crayolas! Wet purple mimeos! Awesome memories.

Damp, early-morning chaparral (kind of like wet hay) reminds me of running on the cross-country team in high school and campouts with my buddies hiking in the private property hills in Irvine, where I grew up.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning…............oh wait, thats been said before.

@Cardinal…lurve for Duvall…

The smell of clover. I reminds me of the lush green fields bathed in sunshine that I used to play in as a kid.

hoof oil, smell of horses -gorgeous; (round the nose area, its sweet and biscuity)
cut grass
white musk perfume – straight back to my teens
ambre solaire sun oil – every young holiday i ever had

Does anyone remember ditto paper and how that smelled. That one brings back memories!

I take a lot of crap for this one, but skunk really does it for me.

@dorkgirl Mmmm…ditto paper. :P

@ru2bz46: Why? Is it a childhood road-trip thing or what? I mean, I could see that even though it’s a bit weird. Just curious.

@cyndyh No, we just had a lot of skunks around when I was growing up. It seems that every other day you’d smell one in the distance, or you’d hit one on the road. Now, when I smell skunk, everybody else plugs their noses while I just smile and remember the good ol’ days. :-)

Yikes! I guess whatever floats your boat. I’m just glad I’m not in the car with you. :^>

The smell of Lilies

Reminds me of a time when quantum theory made perfect sense…

Lilacs.

When I was a little girl, I lived in a neighborhood that was rapidly going downhill. The saving grace of the ramshackle house was that there were, among the thorny weeds and crabgrass in the backyard, violets, clovers and a big lilac bush. Every spring I’d go out to that bush, close my eyes, smell the lilacs and imagine I lived in England.

Soap reminds me of Christmas because my grandmother always give me little soaps and talc powder. :)