Smells and sounds that bring back "good" memories

Sgt911

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A few weeks ago I shot my fathers old Springfield 87A "gill gun". While I was shooting it, the smell of gunpowder brought back childhood memories of when my father taught me how to shoot. I remember the distinct smell it made. I remember care free roaming around the woods looking for the opportunity to pick off an attacking pinecone, or shifty looking cricket. That got me to thinking about childhood fishing trips, the smell of the outboard motor, the marina, being fascinated at the critters in the bait bucket. Each smell was unique, and seem to change over time.
The part of Texas I live in now has few pine trees compared to the piney woods of east Texas, and west Louisiana were I spent my earliest years. I have three pine trees that have managed to survive at my front gate. I was tending to the cows the other day and heard a familiar faint roar above my head. It was the sound of wind through those three pine trees. I hunted squirrels as a child in Louisiana, the wind sound reminded me of those tough windy days sitting under a big pine tree.
I'm sure smells and sounds can trigger both good and bad memories, but the ones from a care free youth are the ones that take me back.
 
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Opening my gunsafe.... that mixture of old gun leather/Hoppes #9/Kroil oil and burnt powder residue makes me happy. It's kinda like that smell I learned as a kid when the JROTC Rifle Team practiced/competed at an indoor range underneath the football bleachers. Old canvas rifle cases/ leather/burnt powder hanging in the air... good times !!
 
One of my favorite times when I was young was seeing.........

the waffle maker on the table!

I liked hot cakes, flap jacks or what ever name you use but waffles only came around 4-6 times a year for some odd reason.

Not having a sweet tooth, I just added butter, syrup & powdered sugar on top..........
my brother also added Honey.
 
My 5 year old and her Browning 1911-22

Years ago I took my daughter out shooting for the first time and after a few rounds she stopped and looked at me and said Daddy it smells like The 4TH of July.
I told her you are right honey and it also smells like Freedom.
 
Homemade chili and homemade baked beans.

One year my brother and I got to go to the World Championship of the International Chili Society. We went around and sampled the chili of a number the cooks. We tried one particular cook's chili and both of us said, "This tastes just like Mom's." Our mother had been too disabled to cook and deceased for a number of years, but the familiar taste of the chili took us back to when we were boys.
 
Sunday morning, meat balls frying, " GRAVY";) simmering on the
stove. Waiting for the grandparents to come over and assorted Aunts and Uncles stopping by for dessert.

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:eek::rolleyes:;):D:D:D
 
too many to list all of them.. the smell of gingerbread cookies... sugar cookies.. reminds me of Christmas... hoppes no9 reminds me of my dad... sweet yeasty bread reminds me of my grandmother on the farm.. alfalfa and hay reminds me of searching for the new kittens in the barn loft between the bails at Easter time...
 
Bacon and pancakes cooking when I woke up as a little kid.

The horrible smell of rear end lube.

Popcorn that I make. Not that (IMHO) awful movie popcorn.

Fried rice from the place we ate at all the time from when I was 2 weeks old. It closed up and I looked and looked for a place that made it the same way for years. Some were close, but it wasn't right. I finally hit the right spot and it turned out the owner/chef had worked at the old place for a couple of years starting out, and the recipie he used was almost identical to the original one from 1956. Just smelling it in my car when I pick it up brings back all kinds of memories of going out to eat. Most of them good, but one that keeps coming back is my dad rolling the dice and eating liver and onions, which had about a 50/50 chance of him getting gout the next morning. The look on my mom's face while she watched him eat it was priceless.
 
Fresh cut grass and the smell of the Allegheny River near Tidioute, PA, where my uncle's camp was. We went to his camp until I turned around 6 when Dad bought ours over in Crawford County. Back then we could walk right out into the river; that was before the Kinzua Dam was built. That along with the pine trees in the yard. Any of those smells, alone or mixed, brings back memories of the camp and everything associated with it. Also, that song Wooden Heart, Joe Dowell's version, I heard for the first time up there. Strange...
 
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