Nostalgia and aromas

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 1:13pm

Normally my bathroom soap is Yarley's English Lavender. I love the fragrance.

However, the other day I did my grocery shopping in a small store in town and found they had Cashmere Bouquet in the shelves. It imediately brought back memories of my childhood, so I bought a few bars. Wow! The delicate aroma was just the way I remembered it and I keep recalling snatches of my childhood as I use it.

A few years earlier, I had a similar experience with the coral colored Lifebuoy soap and it's distinctive 9if overwhelming aroma).

Has anyone else gone through something similar?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 1:17pm

I heard that using English Lavender and Cashmere Bouquet, as a child, makes you gay. Is that true? We used Zest, and I detested it.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:05pm

Yep. Cashmere Bouquet was a shot straight back to the ancestral home for me, too.

Last weekend, on our way upstate, we stopped at a "scenic overlook". It had rained the night before and they were just mowing the grass. The scent was overwhelming...and took me back to carefree days growning up in Ohio... It hadn't occurred to me until then that the aroma of freshly cut lawns can differ.

[DG]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:35pm

The strongest sense memory I have concerning smell is of card catalogues in libraries. As much as I admire the capabilities of computerized systems, I miss terribly flipping through the cards - and they always had a distinct smell.

To this day, if I'm traveling through a small town, I'll stop in the library to see if by chance they still have the cards. I've found a couple, and it always takes me back to my ultimate safety zone from childhood.
Updated On: 8/6/07 at 02:35 PM

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:41pm

You know what else has a nostalgic smell? Old-fashioned hardware stores...

[Bluemoon]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:45pm

Open a new box of Crayola crayons. It's the most evocative smell according to reseachers.

[DG]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:49pm

Moony - I was just thinking about that! I ALWAYS have a 64 box on hand

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:51pm

How about the aroma of an old Five and Ten? The creaky floors, the smell of oil cloth and perhaps camphor? Wow! I haven't thought of that in decades!

[mominator]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:52pm

"Crayola crayons", "Old-fashioned hardware stores", "card catalogues " Wow 3 of my happiest memories are associated with all of these, and they happen to be mentioned by 3 of my favorite people! Maybe it is the weather here today (dull, gray and wet) I also love the smell of used bookstores (especially on days like today!)

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:54pm

Dolly,

You had snatches in your childhood?

I spent 9 months in there, that was enough for me.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 2:54pm

Is there a single 5 and dime in exisitence in this country, anymore. I miss them.

[mominator]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:00pm

Well JB2 there is still the Vermont Country Store. It is a modern throw back to the country stores, with wooden floors , wooly PJ's, and other stuff like that.

[DG]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:05pm

We spent a few days in a small town in Northern California called Ferndale, which is largely refurbished as the small turn-of-the-century town it was. It was used for some of the filming of THE MAJESTIC, with Jim Carrey. They have a 'general store' that operates exactly as it did then - bins of hard candy, handmade soaps and home goods, the works. They've even tracked down many manufacturers of goods from that time period that still operate, and offer them for sale. We spent HOURS in that store alone.

[Bluemoon]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:06pm

And they have a website, too. But it has no aroma.
Vermont Country Store With No Aroma

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:10pm

The Vermont Country Store has been a family-owned business for several generations. Have you ever seen a picture of the boys who run it with their Dad? The Orton boys are mighty fine looking!

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:13pm

Expo markers always remind me of my kindergarten classroom.

There's a lip gloss that I have, which I don't use anymore, but I keep it around because every time I smell it, it reminds me of my early junior high days. There's another one that, for some reason, reminds me of Christmas.

Garlic and Cioppino always remind me of my Grandparent's house.

There's quite a few more that I'll try to think of.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:13pm

The Orton Family

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:14pm

What about the smell of a pencil case?

[Bluemoon]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:19pm

Niiiice. Very nice.

The Orton boys, that is. The pencil case is nice, too.

[mominator]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:44pm

They DO grow them nice in Vermont don't they?

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 3:55pm

Woolworth stores:

To quote singer/songwriter Nanci Griffith, "They smell like popcorn and chewing gum rubbed around on the bottom of a leather-soled shoe."

Love it.

Other smells that take me back:

An old "carpet baggy" Hoover vacuum cleaner.

Paris by Yves Saint Lauren - My grandmother used to wear it, and whenever I catch a whiff, it's as though she's right here with me again.

Giorgio perfume - Same thing with my mom.

Agree conditioner --- takes me right back to the mid-70s.

That clay stuff we used to work with in school... and the plastic red & white checked drop cloths. Those smells take me right back to grade school.

Great thread!

[mominator]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 4:01pm

Even though I am allergic... Freshly cut hay, so sweet and clean.
I am right back at my uncle's place in Landaff NH

[Bluemoon]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 4:02pm

We sniffed mimiographed paper - the ones with the purple print. I'm sure an entire generation will pay the price, health-wise.


It was worth it.

[mominator]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 4:06pm

I always thought that Sister Marie John was sniffing something!

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 8/6/07 at 6:09pm

Has anyone else gone through something similar?

It's called "involuntary memory": when a taste, aroma, sound, etc. transports you back.

A well-known example is in Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (In Search of Lost Time). The narrator bites into a madeleine (a little cake), and memories of his childhood rush back. (These memories are then examined in seven volumes....)



involuntary memory article: Wikipedia Updated On: 8/6/07 at 06:09 PM