smells from childhood...

[asterix]

When I was about 3 years old, my dad did something incredibly stupid - he picked me up and dangled me off a railway bridge when a steam train was thundering by below! It traumatised me ...

I mentioned it to him a couple of years before he died and he was upset to realise that I remembered it. It's not the kind of thing that you tend to forget!

Did Michael Jackson know your dad?

 

[Melonfish]

Peat burning on a fireplace, i get the odd whiff accross the more rural parts of my commute and i love it, leaded petrol, nothing smells quite like leaded petrol when burned it has an oddly sweet smell, all before catalytic converters and unleaded.. ol 4 star
diesel engines on canal boats, odd mix of musty dampness with diesel oil and water, then as you go past the kellogs factory on some days you get the smell of cocoa pops being made (YUM) or cornflakes, the toasting bit smells great.
leaf litter, or forrest floors, i'm in a very woody area here its where i grew up and stamping around the woods was what we always did, the smell of the leaf litter rotting away sends me right back to my youth, prolly running around building dens and shooting home made bows and arrows.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Did Michael Jackson know your dad?

Lloyd George knew my Father ....

 

[2Loose]

Creosote. Now replaced by an equally dangerous chemical. Much like 4-star petrol.

 

[Hacienda71]

Cinder paths on my walk to school.

 

[oliglynn]

The stale smell of the corner shop with the sickly sweet overtones of the penny sweet rack - lovely! Unfortunately the closest you can get these days is the pick 'n' mix sweetie stands that charge £500 per 100g of sweets, so reminiscing is gonna cost £££!

 

[ColinJ]

Did Michael Jackson know your dad?

That one brought back memories!

When I spoke to my dad about the original incident, he got quite emotional about it. It was a moment of madness and when I started screaming and wriggling, he came to his senses and pulled me back to safety.

How could you ever explain to your wife that you'd killed your son by 'accidentally' dropping him off a bridge onto a steam train?

 

[Kirstie]

The smell of an empty box of tictacs; and the smell of sweet cigarettes (the confection, I don't think cigarettes are 'sweet'). Bitumen; two stroke boat engines (from childhood trips to windermere); the smell of skin after freshwater swimming; sunday roast (mine don't smell as nice as my mum's did when I was little) ...oooh jumpers for goalposts...!

I also have some smell memories of family holidays. We went to portugal one year and I'll never forget the fragrant smell of almond trees in the heat; we also had a memorable holiday to tenerife in the 70s, and the hotel, which was in playa de las americas had a very distinct smell in its lobby. We returned 20 years later on another family holiday and the smell was exactly the same!

 

[tyred]

I often call into here to get my fix

As a wee boy there was a bridge we could stand on just outside a marshaling yard, and two steam engines would join up together to pull the coal train up to the steel works at Consett. When the coal train left with both engines on full steam at low speed the noise and smell was just phenomenal

And nearby was a chemical works and there was this little stream affectionately known as the "Gassy Gutter" we used to go and play at the side of this, can't recall the smell but the water was sometimes a florescent yellow in colour. Must have had strange parents they also allowed me to play on a bike without a helmet on, wonder how I survived.

I'm too young to remember the age of steam and all the railways around here had been closed down by the late 1950s anyway but I love steam engines, just like I love all things mechanical. I remember a few years ago going for a ride on a heritage narrow guage steam railway near Bushmills (1904 built rolling stock I think) with my then girlfirend and whereas I was in my element walking up and down the platform taking photos while being showered in smoke, soot, steam and cinders whereas she thought it should be cut up for scrap. Heretic!


In answer to the OP, cresote, Player's Navy Cut cigarettes, TVO tractors, turf fires and leaded petrol.

 

[Archie_tect]

Walking past the teenagers, eating chips out of newspaper, sitting on the precinct wall next to Thompson's Chip Shop... that lovely vinegary, chippy smell. Sets my mouth watering just thinking about it!

 

[subaqua]

[QUOTE 1406823"]
I've just spent a weekend playing with them so I still get the smell.
[/quote]


jammy beggar. Nene valley or great central or the best Severn Valley

 

[alecstilleyedye]

i'm a non-smoker, but i miss the waft of cigarette smoke that you used to get whilst standing at the football…

 

[Angelfishsolo]

The smell of ink from Mimeograph my junior school used to use.

Tar melting in hot summers.

A coal fire on a windy day.

 

[tyred]

Just thought of something. Haven't seen or smelled moth balls in years

 

[Fiona N]

I come from a coal mining area so until the '70s (Clean Air Act bringing in smokeless fuel) most houses burned coal - I still love the smell of a coal fire.

Cycling around some of the less populated areas of the country means you often come across houses and cottages with a coal fire but it's not the same as the massed coal burning of my childhood.