Odor induced memories

[Krogen]

A slight whiff of gasoline and oil puts me right back in the lake on water skis behind Dad's old 2-cycle speed boat.

 

[ralph7]

Coppertone suntan lotion brings memories of pretty girls on the beach.

 

[H Richard]

The smell of a freshly fired "paper" shot shell. Brings back lots of memories.

 

[JohnRippert]

Chanel No5 on the young lady and Lagerfeld on me. The mixture worked exceptionally well. I don't wear scent any more but the smell of Chanel No5 aleways brings back really good memories for me.

 

[PeterJ]

I haven't smelled it since about 1955 but if I ever get a whiff of ether again, I would run and hide.

 

[mckenney99]

I've mentioned this before as it is a trigger for me from my previous life. Hot motor oil, gasoline and antifreeze bring up BAD images and memories.
Moth balls and Vicks Vaporub brings back wonderful memories of both my Grandmothers. Chicken being fried in an IRON skillet has a unique smell that just can't be duplicated by any other method and brings back memories of my Grandmothers and my ex Mother in Law.

 

[biku324]

Betadine smell puts me on edge because of too many hours spent in hospital emergency departments with victims, suspects, and the unlucky.

 

[Rustyt1953]

The back of a band tour bus.

 

[kev74]

You guys are killing me! I lost my sense of smell during surgery in 1997. Since it was choice between being able to smell or breathe, I'm not complaining.

Each of those scents you mention is, in fact, stored in my memory and I sometimes have the reverse effect where a memory triggers an "olfactory hallucination". I hope to recall the scent of a freshly fired paper shotshell someday.

One evidence that God has a sense of humor is that I didn't lose that sense until after I stopped dealing with corpses and drunks. Back then I'd have paid good money to have for an hour or two what I have every day now.

I'm in the same boat. I lost my sense of smell about 6 years ago after a nasty, long term sinus infection.

Some times I'll be in a situation that triggers some smell memories - sometimes good, sometimes bad. I'll take a couple of sniffs, but it disappears.

It does come in handy sometimes. My wife calls it my superpower.

 

[Rudi]

The sense of smell is one of the strongest memory inducers.

 

[wood714]

I miss the smell of an old pharmacy. Seemed like they all had a distinctive smell back when I was a kid.

I remember one in my town had a soda shop in it.

 

[SMSgt]

My odor-induced memory is not a good one. My high school psychology class took a field trip to an insane asylum. I can vividly remember the seafoam green walls and the women tied into their wheelchairs with their arms strapped to the chair arms so that they could not rip their hair out. Their heads painted with that purple solution to prevent infection. Most of them were sitting in their own waste, probably for hours. The sound of someone screaming from behind the locked door of a padded room. To this day the smell of stale urine instantly takes me back to that field trip. I guess it is my own little PTSD.

 

[Czechvar]

Diesel fumes…just reminds me of the flight line…good times…

 

[Rustyt1953]

I miss the smell of an old pharmacy. Seemed like they all had a distinctive smell back when I was a kid.

I remember one in my town had a soda shop in it.

In high school I went to Neisner's Five & Dime on Montgomery Road. It was a department store/pharmacy with a soda fountain in the back. When you walked in you could grab complimentary popcorn from a machine near the entrance. The smell of stale popcorn clung to you like Saran Wrap.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

The smell of a freshly fired "paper" shot shell. Brings back lots of memories.

YOU NAILED IT!!!!!!!!!............Taint nothin better.

Also diesel fumes and fresh turned dirt from the tractor seat

 

[foxy320]

The smell of fresh cut hay field reminds me of all the time spent walking & hunting woodchucks in upstate New York in my teens & 20's

 

[Sistema1927]

You never forget the smell of decaying human flesh. My first experience was at age 17 when I assisted in pulling 7 bodies out of a car that had run off the road into a ravine and sat there for about 18 hours in the hot New Mexico sun before being discovered.

My duties as a Police Chaplain took me into situations where I also encountered this familiar smell. Trust me, it is something you never forget.

A High School buddy of mine was part of the US Army contingent that went down to Jonestown to remove the bodies. He told me that he would never eat peppermint again, since they issued them to help keep from gagging on the stench.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

For me it's fresh baked bicuits & a pot of beans coming off the stove.

 

[geddylee10002000]

Mimeographs and Ditto copies in school in the 60's. 40th class reunion they had a "memories" table set up. Half the people that browsed it picked the copies up and smelled them!

Worked in a mortuary as a summer job and during the school year as needed from 1968 till 1973. I was a gopher. Decaying humans and formaldehyde will stick with me forever.

 

[CH4]

Nothing brings me back to my childhood on Peek Hill quicker than the sweet smell of a fig tree on a hot summer day.