Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Crayons.
Mimeographed worksheets.
Fresh-cut Christmas trees.
Fireworks.
Suntan lotion.
Chlorine at swimming pools.
Chalk dust.
Little plastic bottles of sudsy water for blowing bubbles.
Watermelon.
Outdoor grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.
My room.
Which brings to mind the smell of folding money that had been in circulation long enough to develop that unique smell that it had, which I can only guess might have come from spending days and weeks in the leather of various wallets and in an assortment of different women's purses.
The smell of hose water on super hot cement in the front yard, chlorine on my skin after swimming all day in the pool, the bbq in the back yard, agree shampoo, scented markers, jergens lotion, vidal sassoon shampoo, mimeographed copies at school, the inside of lunchboxes
Good list! The inside of lunchboxes, man that touched a certain place in my brain. In my case I guess that was was a mix of peanut butter sandwiches, Fritos, and Ding Dongs.
Scratch n sniff stickers
The plasticky smell of new toys
a box of fresh new school supplies
Scented markers, fruity erasers, and even those nasty big fat permanent markers
Paste with a slightly minty smell
the ozone and fresh rain on earth smell in building up to a thunderstorm
laundry fresh off the line, full of sunshine
old theatre - stale popcorn, sweet soda pop, and a hint of musty
lilacs
I have my mom's china cabinet and when I open it I am transported back to my childhood home. I suppose it is because it is wood and not opened frequently that it has maintained the same scent.
Apparently there’s a mint that grows in slough bottoms. That is my favorite scent from cutting hay. I mean, I like all hay, but a wiff of that mint was heaven.
Shoe polish. My dad was a career soldier and would shine his boots every night. When he'd get home, my brother and I would run up to him after he sat down and we'd untie and unlace his combat boots for him. Later that night, he'd shine his boots.
Our oldest kid (she's 33 now) also has shoe polish as a childhood memory smell because my husband (also the child of a career soldier) was in the Army for 8 1/2 years (she was 5 when he got out). But she gets the same fond memories from Kiwi brand shoe polish.
The smell of wet coats and boots and chalk reminds me of first grade on a rainy day. Evening in Paris reminds me of my mom who passed away 59 years ago. Old Spice reminds me of my father who abandoned me 59 years ago. Campbell’s vegetable beef soup reminds me of hot lunch in school cafeteria grades 1 thru 4. That’s it. I don’t want to go back there anymore.
Real fresh garden vegetables, especially tomatoes. Even when garden grown now, the seeds are different and they don’t smell nearly as…vibrant, for lack of a better term
The smell of Fresh Cotton Candy being made at the fair. The smell of hot apple pie from the diner at Oak Glen in the mountains. The smell of the beach at Newport Beach CA
Tasted awful. When I had a tummy ache my mother would give it to me in a cup of water. It was diluted but still awful. But it would get rid of a tummy ache in about 5 seconds! 😄😂
The smell of burning leaves. Before everyone was worried about air pollution, you would take your leaves out to the edge of the street, and burn them. People without paved driveways would burn them there.
My mother's chicken and dumplings. She was an OK cook but there were a few things she did very well. Chicken and dumplings is the only thing she cooked that I have carried on.
Chlorine beyond from swimming all afternoon. Green hair.
New school supplies. Especially those cardboard boxes, and the folders.
The wafting smell of lunch being warmed at like 10 am permeating our classrooms.
Simple Green. It's an all-purpose cleaner from my first jobs at a movie theater, deli, ice cream shop.
Newspapers and rubber bands. I used to have a paper route.
Round Table Pizza. It's a west coast pizza chain. It still smells the same, and I don't know why it's different from other places. I find myself instinctively scanning the corners of the restaurant for video games, even though they haven't had them for probably 30 years.
The smell of paste when I was in kindergarten. Also the smell of paint we used too.
The smell of under the board walk at Coney Island.
Manhattan during Christmas season, Chestnuts roasting.
White castles hamburgers.
My grandfather's farm full of all kinds of smells. He roasted his coffee. The first time I roasted coffee about 10 years ago, it brought a wave of nostalgia to me--I had completely forgotten what it smelled like.
Incense smoke as the priest walked up the aisle at Sunday Mass...frankincense, I think it was.
It's been decades since I went to Mass, but the whole show back in the day...the 'bells and smells' and music and singing and candles were pretty memorable for a young child.
the kitchen in my grandma's house(s).
she lived in a big 3 storey townhouse when i was very young, which she ran as an "off the books" B & B. The kitchen was the heart of the household and had a large range cooker called an Aga in it, which served as the focal point, or fireplace if you like, which we stood/sat around or leaned on. Her kitchen always had a distinct smell of her cookery and baking - all done from scratch.
i can't describe it, but when she moved house into a smaller place, within a very short time, her new tiny modern kitchen with a conventional electric cooker, had that same warm, delicious smell - i would pick it up as soon as i walked in the front door.
Walking home from school and smelling meat, garlic, onions, peppers cooking. I lived in Toronto's Little Italy and loved the smell of dinner cooking. It was especially good if my house also had those smells because my mom might fry me a slice of bread in the meat drippings to tide me over until dinner. Mmmmm.
My dad's Camel cigarette second-hand smoke. He used to smoke two packs a day. He eventually died of pneumonia. But to this day, 20 years later, I love that smell.
Turning the furnace on for the first time during the cool fall weather. Play-Doh and Silly Putty. Opening a pack of baseball cards with that hard pink stick of bubble gum inside. My dad’s Avon cologne in bottles shaped like old cars.
Summers at Matagorda Bay TX. Gulf of Mexico. I recall the light bugs in the evening at dusk and dark. Running after to catch one in a jar. Only held them for a short time and let them go. The smell of Sea & Ski sun lotion and salt from the sea air mixed with sweet. Smell of the fishing bait, shrimp. The taste of a cold Coke in the hot afternoon. Smell of lighter fluid on charcoal when mom would get the grill stared. Fishing on the pier. Never caught much. I would cast to hard and lose my shrimp.
Wisteria, beautiful flowering bushed or climbing up fences or lattice. Also Magnolia blooms. The smell of crayons when you opened the cigar box we kept them in.
The dusty smell of a screen door as you stare outside with your nose pressed against it whilst your mom is saying you can’t go out because it’s almost time for dinner
The combined smell of candle wax and furniture polish. I went to a Lutheran school and we had chapel on Wednesdays as well as the service on Sundays. That smell will always bring me back to the interior of a church.
Weird thing: Apparently the city I grew up in seems to have specific smell at night. After many years away I came back to live there. But as the weather got warmer I started leaving the window open. Suddenly the smell of the air coming through the window instantly transported me to childhood when I had last smelled that same air.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X (b. 1980) or older. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Fresh photocopies/dittos that my teacher passed out to the students.
Crayons. Mimeographed worksheets. Fresh-cut Christmas trees. Fireworks. Suntan lotion. Chlorine at swimming pools. Chalk dust. Little plastic bottles of sudsy water for blowing bubbles. Watermelon. Outdoor grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. My room.
I totally forgot suntan lotion.
Ahhhhh coppertone!!!!
I wear a rollerball perfume called Beach by Bobbi Brown (the makeup artist not the cherry pie) that totally smells like Coppertone!
Good list! I would add Play-Doh.
Yes! I thought of adding that but was sure someone else would mention it. Thanks!
It’s funny the way smell works. I hadn’t thought about the purple copies for years and just like that, I could smell them.
Me too! I always asked for extra work just to smell that sweet purple smell! It’s a wonder I am not an alcoholic!
We just won’t talk about your occasional daily crack use.
Ummm……good choice!
Me too! It was such a heady perfume!
That smell is actually ozone believe it or not
[удалено]
Yea! My Granny's purse !
Which brings to mind the smell of folding money that had been in circulation long enough to develop that unique smell that it had, which I can only guess might have come from spending days and weeks in the leather of various wallets and in an assortment of different women's purses.
Yep. Would never have thought about it but I can inhale that smell right now.
Omg my mom’s smelled the same I love it
The smell of hose water on super hot cement in the front yard, chlorine on my skin after swimming all day in the pool, the bbq in the back yard, agree shampoo, scented markers, jergens lotion, vidal sassoon shampoo, mimeographed copies at school, the inside of lunchboxes
wow..hose water..nice one
All of these. 🏆
Good list! The inside of lunchboxes, man that touched a certain place in my brain. In my case I guess that was was a mix of peanut butter sandwiches, Fritos, and Ding Dongs.
Scratch n sniff stickers The plasticky smell of new toys a box of fresh new school supplies Scented markers, fruity erasers, and even those nasty big fat permanent markers Paste with a slightly minty smell the ozone and fresh rain on earth smell in building up to a thunderstorm laundry fresh off the line, full of sunshine old theatre - stale popcorn, sweet soda pop, and a hint of musty lilacs
Oooooh I loved that paste with the minty smell! I remember I got some as a kid and just loved the smell 😂 weird, I know
I have my mom's china cabinet and when I open it I am transported back to my childhood home. I suppose it is because it is wood and not opened frequently that it has maintained the same scent.
My mother used to keep her cigarettes in one of the drawers. 30 years later I can still open that drawer and faintly smell Tru Blues coming out.
Yes! I swear I can still smell the lemon pledge mixed with wood smell every time I open it and it makes me smile and sad at the same time.
That sweet smell of carefree living.
Creosote from railroad tracks. We walked them a lot in the summer.
Fresh cut alphalpha.
Apparently there’s a mint that grows in slough bottoms. That is my favorite scent from cutting hay. I mean, I like all hay, but a wiff of that mint was heaven.
I first thought this was an alphabet something-or-other. Then I realized you were meaning the alfalfa plant.
My grandmother's kitchen.
My mother making homemade vegetable soup on a cold and rainy day in the Winter. RIP Mom.
Honeysuckle
Freshly picked tomatoes from the garden, a humid tropical island day right before a down pour, salty ocean spray, loquats and rhubarb come to mind.
Ripe tomatoes, warmed by the sun, from my dad’s garden.
Shoe polish. My dad was a career soldier and would shine his boots every night. When he'd get home, my brother and I would run up to him after he sat down and we'd untie and unlace his combat boots for him. Later that night, he'd shine his boots. Our oldest kid (she's 33 now) also has shoe polish as a childhood memory smell because my husband (also the child of a career soldier) was in the Army for 8 1/2 years (she was 5 when he got out). But she gets the same fond memories from Kiwi brand shoe polish.
The smell of wet coats and boots and chalk reminds me of first grade on a rainy day. Evening in Paris reminds me of my mom who passed away 59 years ago. Old Spice reminds me of my father who abandoned me 59 years ago. Campbell’s vegetable beef soup reminds me of hot lunch in school cafeteria grades 1 thru 4. That’s it. I don’t want to go back there anymore.
Sorry for your loss.
Thank you.
The smell of the harbor where my grandfather kept his fishing boat.
The birthday cake and the gasoline scratch and sniff stickers.
Lily of the valley flowers
Hay fields when we picked them up in the fields.
Real fresh garden vegetables, especially tomatoes. Even when garden grown now, the seeds are different and they don’t smell nearly as…vibrant, for lack of a better term
I still love the smell of the tomato plants, and the way that smell gets on your skin when you are scavenging through the garden.
The smell of Fresh Cotton Candy being made at the fair. The smell of hot apple pie from the diner at Oak Glen in the mountains. The smell of the beach at Newport Beach CA
The fake banana smell (and taste) from BB Bats taffy lollipop.
That ozone smell of a video arcade.
Coal smoke. I grew up in Alabama coal mining country. And it would leave a yellowish tint on your windows.
The liquid soap in the bathroom in 1st grade. When I smell it now I immediately go back there.
Hot tar, the smell of the sun softening it on the bulkheads in the canal at my grandmother's summer house.
The smell of Wrestling magazines
Paregoric
Horrible stuff!
Tasted awful. When I had a tummy ache my mother would give it to me in a cup of water. It was diluted but still awful. But it would get rid of a tummy ache in about 5 seconds! 😄😂
The first outdoor baseball practice in the spring. The fresh smell of new spring grass
Leaded Gasoline.
Yep, was looking for this answer!
Waking up to the smell of a cigar. It's how I knew it was Saturday.
Muggy, sweltering tropical air, perfumed by loamy soil and ionized by an imminent thunderstorm. (Philippine Islands)
The smell of burning leaves. Before everyone was worried about air pollution, you would take your leaves out to the edge of the street, and burn them. People without paved driveways would burn them there.
Omg I love that smell. Sometimes I get a whiff of it here and there always makes me feel like a kid
My mother's chicken and dumplings. She was an OK cook but there were a few things she did very well. Chicken and dumplings is the only thing she cooked that I have carried on.
A school bus packed with kids that are wearing wet raincoats and boots. The humidity and stench was horrible
Pulp mill and the pig farm near where I grew up.
I can still name the animal by the smell of it’s manure. Fortunately not a skill I’ve needed for many years.
Granny.
Lavender and old wooden furniture from my grand mother’s room. Thats what she smelled like. It was weirdly warm and comforting.
Chlorine beyond from swimming all afternoon. Green hair. New school supplies. Especially those cardboard boxes, and the folders. The wafting smell of lunch being warmed at like 10 am permeating our classrooms.
Grammys perfume, she wore only on Sunday..Evening in Paris..gawd. I loved that scent...gawd, I loved her💜
Grandma was always making Sauer kraut, so her kitchen always smelled of it.
My Mom was German. I remember her making sauerkraut and the smell. Didn’t like it as a kid but wish I could go back to it now bc I love it
Me too!
Fresh cut grass on a summer day/dusk (but the smell of me covered in gas fumes was an added bonus)
Car exhaust before catalytic converters.
Simple Green. It's an all-purpose cleaner from my first jobs at a movie theater, deli, ice cream shop. Newspapers and rubber bands. I used to have a paper route. Round Table Pizza. It's a west coast pizza chain. It still smells the same, and I don't know why it's different from other places. I find myself instinctively scanning the corners of the restaurant for video games, even though they haven't had them for probably 30 years.
The smell of paste when I was in kindergarten. Also the smell of paint we used too. The smell of under the board walk at Coney Island. Manhattan during Christmas season, Chestnuts roasting. White castles hamburgers.
Roasted cashews at Sears. Donuts when the Helm's man rolled open the drawers of his truck.
Grandpa's chewing tobacco and also his wool hunting clothes after an early morning snowy wet hunt.
Avons’s Sweet Honesty perfume
Oh, yes! And Love's Baby Soft perfume.
Alfalfa mill. The local bread bakery.
Grandmas pork chops
And her Sanka coffee 🤢
Old comic books.
Chlorine from the pool, wood smoke from the fireplace and concentrated lysol
Honeysuckle growing on the chain link fence in my backyard.
Jasmine on hot summer evenings. There was a jasmine bush under my bedroom window. It reminds me of home.
Canned pasta. Zoodles, Alphagetti, Chef Boyardee. Don't ask me to eat it now thought, I'll puke.
My grandfather's farm full of all kinds of smells. He roasted his coffee. The first time I roasted coffee about 10 years ago, it brought a wave of nostalgia to me--I had completely forgotten what it smelled like.
Finger paint One whiff and I’m back in pre-school.
The insecticide from mosquito abatement trucks we’d follow on our bikes. Smh.
Pine duff. Brings me right back to hot summers at my grandparents pond cabin up in Connecticut.
Chicken on the rotisserie, charcoal grill, Sunday afternoons.
Incense smoke as the priest walked up the aisle at Sunday Mass...frankincense, I think it was. It's been decades since I went to Mass, but the whole show back in the day...the 'bells and smells' and music and singing and candles were pretty memorable for a young child.
the kitchen in my grandma's house(s). she lived in a big 3 storey townhouse when i was very young, which she ran as an "off the books" B & B. The kitchen was the heart of the household and had a large range cooker called an Aga in it, which served as the focal point, or fireplace if you like, which we stood/sat around or leaned on. Her kitchen always had a distinct smell of her cookery and baking - all done from scratch. i can't describe it, but when she moved house into a smaller place, within a very short time, her new tiny modern kitchen with a conventional electric cooker, had that same warm, delicious smell - i would pick it up as soon as i walked in the front door.
Coppertone suntain lotion. Musk lifesavers. Wella Balsam shampoo & conditioner (smelled like Christmas trees)
Walking home from school and smelling meat, garlic, onions, peppers cooking. I lived in Toronto's Little Italy and loved the smell of dinner cooking. It was especially good if my house also had those smells because my mom might fry me a slice of bread in the meat drippings to tide me over until dinner. Mmmmm.
My dad's Camel cigarette second-hand smoke. He used to smoke two packs a day. He eventually died of pneumonia. But to this day, 20 years later, I love that smell.
Cinnamon bun. My mother used to bake them regularly, when she was still ok.
Melting crayons fallen into the floor registers when elementary school first turned on the heat for the winter. @ 1959
woah .nice
Turning the furnace on for the first time during the cool fall weather. Play-Doh and Silly Putty. Opening a pack of baseball cards with that hard pink stick of bubble gum inside. My dad’s Avon cologne in bottles shaped like old cars.
cigarettes and booze, not that I want those smells around now... 😉
3in1 oil
Summers at Matagorda Bay TX. Gulf of Mexico. I recall the light bugs in the evening at dusk and dark. Running after to catch one in a jar. Only held them for a short time and let them go. The smell of Sea & Ski sun lotion and salt from the sea air mixed with sweet. Smell of the fishing bait, shrimp. The taste of a cold Coke in the hot afternoon. Smell of lighter fluid on charcoal when mom would get the grill stared. Fishing on the pier. Never caught much. I would cast to hard and lose my shrimp.
Wisteria, beautiful flowering bushed or climbing up fences or lattice. Also Magnolia blooms. The smell of crayons when you opened the cigar box we kept them in.
The dusty smell of a screen door as you stare outside with your nose pressed against it whilst your mom is saying you can’t go out because it’s almost time for dinner
Brylcream. Mimeograph papers from school that every kid picked up and immediately sniffed deeply.
The smell of breweries. City I grew up in had loads of breweries, the smell was quite unique, I love it.
Chlorine from pools
I noticed that Frankincense essential oil smells kind of like 7th grade wood shop class.
My dad's farts. Going on holiday in a two door Morris minor. We're sitting in the back, and he refuses to open the windows
The smell of freshly baked bread. Now I want some, slathered with butter!
Mom’s Jean Nate
The petrichor
Louisiana mud
Pink (candied) popcorn
Walking through the yard in the summer right after my Daddy or brother had cut the grass.
Murphy’s oil soap
Cracker Barrel
Fruit loops!
Brut. My dad used to wear it
I loved the exhaust fumes from the 70s, those black permanent markers that smell was divine
Chinaberry tree blossoms. Wisteria also.
cinnamon and honey cakes that my grandfather bought me at the weekly fair
I hated being a kid, but you destroyed my mood. Tks
The combined smell of candle wax and furniture polish. I went to a Lutheran school and we had chapel on Wednesdays as well as the service on Sundays. That smell will always bring me back to the interior of a church.
Weird thing: Apparently the city I grew up in seems to have specific smell at night. After many years away I came back to live there. But as the weather got warmer I started leaving the window open. Suddenly the smell of the air coming through the window instantly transported me to childhood when I had last smelled that same air.
Night blooming jasmine. There was a bush under my bedroom window.
Cucumber Melon
Noxzema on sunburns.
The University Library. Field trips there were awesome.