Sounds and scents that take you back

Today, I was at a customer's house and they had a ceiling fan that was a little bit louder than it should be. It had a hum to it. Ceiling fans, box fans and other fans like ocillating fans can make me think of being a kid again. Whenever I hear the hum from a fluorescent light fixture, it takes me back to being a kid in school. The lights in the schools had a similar hum to them.
The sound of an Oldsmobile V-8 engine also takes me back. As early as kindergarten, I could tell the difference between the sound of Oldsmobile V-8 engines and other V-8's. I remember the other kids laughing about that.
Whenever I hear the fan of my old desktop computer that I hardly ever use anymore, I think of when I first joined CPF, learning about EternaLights.

As far as scents, freshly cut grass, baseballs and baseball gloves all make me think of little league baseball games whenever I smell them. And then there's the smell of the exhaust of a hopped up V-8 engine, slightly too rich, makes me think of when I started fooling around with cars 20 years ago.
And when I smell a charcoal grill, I can't help but think of spring and summer.

What sounds and scents take you to another time and place?

Scents:

-- a brand-new box of Crayola Crayons !

Did you know this special scent is actually Patented ?



-- Play-Doh !


-- new License Plates !


-- walking into a tire store !


-- of course, that "new-car" smell !


-- fresh-run copies from a Mimeograph machine !

(you "kids" will hafta' ask yer' parents about this one)




-- running adhesive Avery Labels through a Laser Printer !

This actually smells Sweet !



-- The smell of camera Flashbulbs ! (upon firing)

Also, the simultaneous "crackling" sound which they emitted.
Haven't used flashbulbs for DECADES, but i can still remember this.


_

You know the older I get, the more I remember things in my youth. Why is that? Is it because somehow it seemed so much more real then? Simpler? Better?

Anyhow, The sound of a Mourning dove, just before dark. When I hear them now, I remember the sound when I was a child. It was the sound signaling nightfall and school work to be done.

The sound of a Bobcat screaming always brings me back to the first night I ever heard one. It was when I was a pre-teen, on a fishing trip with my older cousins. We were at Hemlock lake, NY state and we were at the waters edge, surrounded by pine forest. We were waiting for my mother to come and pick us up. Darkenss had already fallen and she was late. Then the bobcats started screaming. It was spring and they are pretty vocal then. We could hear them working around us. I was young and scared. I'm not scared any more, but I'm still impressed to hear one.

The sound of "Race cars" and the smell of burning rubber. Knowing which car was coming around, just by the tone of the exhaust. Not chevy or ford or dodge, but knowing it was John's car or Joes, etc. When I hear a nice sounding old Chevy or Mopar, I think back to my teens and listening/watching the street racers, before I could afford any car.

The smell of being in a pine forest and the sound of the wind in the pines. I spent so much of my youth in the woods. Any time I get to be in them (almost never any more), I long for the scents and sounds. Lying in pine needles is just as good, if not better than lying in the grass of NY state, in the spring.

Man, you take me back with that first post. Make me think.....

The smells and sounds of an F1 engine.

The smells and sounds of a WWII fighter.

Fresh homemade bread right out of the oven and the crunch of the warm crust.

Smoke and crackling from wood in a fireplace or a campfire.

A certain perfume that a certain lady I once knew sprayed very lightly in her hair, and a certain "purr."

Great thread, Ed. It got me thinking. I'll occasionally put some neatsfoot oil on the short rawhide lanyards of some lights, and it brings back fond memories of ball gloves and little league. The slightly musty smell of tents and sleeping bags is another memory maker.

Geoff

The sounds of gun shots and explosions reminds me of Call of Duty 4 for

the PS3. Those were the good ole days, me and my clan buddies beating

up other clans just to take that #1 spot on gamebattles.com team leader.

Too bad I put that all behind me now, and got rid of my PS3 and games.

I hate the college life (alcohol, parties, and women). :mecry: :mecry: :mecry:

I want to be a kid again!! :mecry:

EDIT: Not! (sorta :mecry: )

...the smell of napalm in the morning

The smell of a brush fire reminds me of a day 3 years ago when it was

raining ash. It was the closest it ever came in Florida to snow.

Coconut scented tanning lotion...reminds me of when we went to Florida 26 years ago this month

We are going back to Florida next march since my son will be 10 years old by then

I get a trip back to my youth every time I open a can of Pepsi; I remember the smell so well.
Dad made a weekly trip to town to buy groceries, fuel, etc, but the highlight for me was stopping at the bottling plant to buy the weekly case of Pepsi.

Fresh baked bread, baked goods, and BLUEBERRY PIE.

Sound of an R-1340 radial overhead. Growing up, I lived near the airport where the Skytypers were based - 5 AT-6/SNJs are/were used, and on nice Saturdays, they used to take off over my house (Fairly high up, we were not really in the pattern) Reminds me of laying in bed with the windows open - sigh

The smell of the sealer you had to put on top of Polaroid fresh peeled images to stabilize them.

Swimming pool chlorine takes me back to my years on the swim team.

Pungent manure fertilizer on farm fields & smell of hay takes me to the years living around and visiting farms and riding horses.

Ice cream trucks with newer repeating melody reminds me of rushing outside as a child to get some orange sherbert push-ups.

The smell of burning leaves in the fall takes me back to when it was still legal to burn leaves within city limits. Nowadays, I only seem to run into that smell when driving in the country.

Hearing a commercial ice maker or other loud refrigeration unit reminds me of going to the local drive-in restaurant for a treat after a little league baseball game.

Scent seems able to bring about memories for me fairly often. One strong example is the smell of new denim. Although we were pretty much comfortably middle class, I only got new blue jeans once a year when school started. The smell of new denim still stimulates a strong remembrance and emotion of the first day of the school year.

The smell after it rains takes me back 20+ yrs and thousands of miles away.

Ditto on Burgess' comment about the smell of crayons! It immediately takes me back to grade school and simpler times. The scent of white school paste does the same, as well as the scent of a fresh Pink Pearl eraser.

Other scents -

Lilac bushes in the spring. It takes me back to, well, last spring!

The smell that emanates from the ground after the first heavy rain in spring. It whispers gently of the promise of life renewed and warmer days.

The unique, slightly fruity smell of Schaffer's fountain pen ink cartridges. That also takes me back to school days. The smell of a freshly mimeographed page does the same, although I haven't run across that scent in a long time.

The scent of a freshly opened can of ciffee! It takes me back to the first time I experienced that wonderful aroma as a child.

I've been told that scent is very closely tied to memory and I believe it. Neat thread!

the smell of diesel and fresh cut hay- cutting hay in the summer on the farm
the smell of manure and starting fluid- feeding the cows in the winter
lithium batteries after being pent up in a surefire- back when i first got into lights
ill think of more when i get a whiff of them.

The smell of fresh ground coffee beans, when we lived in malaysia, we would go to the local coffee shop and have breakfast, I think my family did that every weekend from the time I was a baby until we left malaysia.

The smell of aviation fuel and the whine of the turbine on a Bell 212 and 222. My dad worked at a small aviation company, primarily ferrying workers and cargo to the oil rigs and the mountain in Malaysia. At one time, my dad taught me how to tell the difference between the pitch of a 212 and a 222 and Hughes too.

Food, home made pizza with lots of seafood on it. The smell of cheese and the crabs and other seafoods brings back memories of when I first ate it as a child.

Sounds and scents take me to another time and place... that's good question. I haven't really thought anything about sounds and scents, but this question made me do it. So, let me see...

Scent of fresh sea breeze and even rotten fish reminds me of the port I was born and raised. There are couple big old style fish markets I used to walk by. The market smells stink, but that was one of the most lively place I ever seen.

Seeing forsythia flower in spring takes me back to the time. I was not able to go kindergarden because there were none at that time. Then several kindergardens opened up later. They wore yellow uniforms. I wish I could wear one if I ever could go back. My wife tease me like "I can't believe that I live with the man who didn't even have such a basic education" Yeah, whatever.

Smells from my grandma's house in rural, mountainous Japan take me back a lot. She used to store her clothes with mothballs (not the strong yucky stuff), so whenever my mom would pull something out from a long time ago it takes me right back. Overall the area surrounding her house smells very natural and beautiful, but of course I can't get that scent unless I actually go back...

...but overall, Japan seems to have a distinct "scent". For whatever reason when I get a package or bring something over from Japan, there's a scent that makes me and my brother exclaim "it smells like Japan!!!".