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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:34:46 PM EDT
Everyone has certain trigger sounds and smells that put you right back in an earlier place and time. These senses
are triggered by a familiar sound or smell and suddenly you're THERE again. For me, some of them are: The smell of wood smoke on a cool or cold evening, especially if it's overcast. Suddenly I'm back in Nebraska as a kid again, in the winter. Been out playing in the snow for hours and now it's getting dark, the Christmas lights are being plugged in, and though I'm getting cold and hungry I just want to stand out there and look at them. Our house on the hill gave a pretty good view of the town and when lit up with all those Christmas lights, it was really pretty. There was a small stand of pine trees growing between my house and my neighbor's house, one lot down the hill. On a quiet, cold evening with fresh snow on the ground I'd stand in that fresh snow, hear the breeze in those pine trees, smell the wood fires in people's fireplaces, and just enjoy the sensations of it all. Then I'd come inside and get warmed up with a blanket and a hot bowl of mom's awesome chili. (With beans, of course.) Which would ensure that I'd be able to keep myself warm that night, at least under the covers.  Just now I hear a C-130 doing an engine run at the local AFB, just about three miles north of me. Hearing that sound at night puts me back in my dorm room in the triangle at Keesler AFB, 1987/1988. It's like I'm THERE. It was such a regularly heard sound there that I always associate it with my time at Keesler, learning wideband communcations electronics. What does it for you? CJ |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:36:51 PM EDT
[#1]
Wood smoke or burning leaves on a cold fall day takes me right back to my youth.
Another one is a certain smell of dry groceries and baking goods (hard to describe it) that will always give me an instant flashback to my grandmother's pantry when I was a boy. Olfactory memories are very powerful. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:38:51 PM EDT
[#2]
pine-sol..........reception station at Ft Jackson SC 1983
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:39:58 PM EDT
[#3]
egg nog
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:40:14 PM EDT
[#4]
gassy/oily salt water in my nose ..... from being around boats ........swimming in the water with them
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:40:38 PM EDT
[#5]
Def Lepard and the smell of sweat and hairspray takes me back to a Friday night in 1988.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:40:53 PM EDT
[#6]
Quoted:
Olfactory memories are very powerful. The most powerful memory trigger, if I remember correctly. Morning air in the forest, reminds me of backpacking trips when I was young. There's also a certain smell that's part old engine grease, part sawdust, part metal, part recently-used (but not that day) lawnmower, and part hot summer day inside an old building that reminds me instantly of the shop / garage at my Grandparent's place in the Klickitat gorge when we would visit them in summer. I walked out once into my garage a few months back and it smelled exactly like that. Only that once, though. Wish I knew what it was, I love that smell. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:42:30 PM EDT
[#7]
New military surplus clothing and canvas. The smell takes me back vividly to initial issue at Parris Island.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:47:08 PM EDT
[#8]
Anything fron Pearl Jam's Vs. album takes me right back to my college dorm room.
The smell of Lord Calvert reminds me of puke coming out of my nose multiple times in high school. The smell of Hopes 9 takes me back to cleaning guns with my old man. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:47:19 PM EDT
[#9]
The smell of Clubman aftershave reminds me of getting my haircut as a kid.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:47:20 PM EDT
[#10]
Napalm. In the morning.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:48:25 PM EDT
[#11]
Hay/horse shit make me think of my childhood in Utah.
George Strait makes me think of sitting in my Dad's lap while he let me steer the truck down a long dirt road. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:49:48 PM EDT
[#12]
Quoted:
Anything fron Pearl Jam's Vs. album takes me right back to my college dorm room. Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason does this for me. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:54:37 PM EDT
[#13]
My dad got a brand new truck about the time I got my first real girlfriend.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 6:54:55 PM EDT
[#14]
I was cleaning up my mom's stuff right after she died, so my dad wouldn't have constant reminders all around him (eyeglasses and shoes shaped to her feet, etc.). I was doing great until I opened her purse and got hit with the smell of tobacco and mint. The smell of mom. I shut the bag and put it away and decided I wasn't going to clean it out for a few years. Finished up all the rest. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:00:11 PM EDT
[#15]
A snoot full of fast gas, might as well be 1995 again.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:01:41 PM EDT
[#16]
Diesel exhaust always takes me back to my time in the Army.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:02:22 PM EDT
[#17]
Diesel fumes always remind me of being in the motor pool drawing BII for my Bradley. They are good memories.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:02:22 PM EDT
[#18]
Coal heated house in the winter, I grew up in one in the fifties.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:05:06 PM EDT
[#19]
One good whiff of a stanky outhouse, and suddenly im back at Kandahar.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:05:39 PM EDT
[#20]
Burning leaves
The ozone smell when it first starts raining 60s era GM car interiors Race gas The inside of a liquor cabinet |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:11:03 PM EDT
[#21]
Horse sweat and leather takes me right back to childhood.
The ocean is summer vacations as grandma's. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:12:16 PM EDT
[#22]
Certain perfumes remind me of certain girls...
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:12:37 PM EDT
[#23]
smell of cocaine always reminded me of a time of unlimited endurance, attention, and focus. one whiff and I'm overcome with a sense of well-being and euphoria, a tremendous amount of energy, confidence, and competence.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:17:00 PM EDT
[#24]
Every time I fire up my charcoal grill or smoker and get that great smell of burning coals and hickory I instantly get memories of dad and the hours spent hanging out with him while grilling/smoking. The smell of a well warn baseball glove gives me flashbacks of summer as a kid. Burnt powder and CLP reminds me of rifle qualification. Burning oak in a bonfire always reminds me of big family get togethers we had when I was a kid. Both of my parents died within the last three years, so smells that remind me of them have been both great and terrible at the same time. Last week I was outside in the morning, it was cold and I was screwing around with my jeep. I got thirsty so I went inside to grab a drink. As I entered my house and shut the door I got a little of that cold air/old engine oil smell and I swear dad could have been standing right beside me. It was really cool and really sad at the same time. It's funny how smells can do that. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:19:03 PM EDT
[#25]
Hoppes 9...... A few songs make a certain moment flash in my head mostly from the couple years after high school...... But just a couple weeks ago a lady walked by in the store and I instantly smelt my 2nd grade classroom I think it was a lotion my teacher used but man that was weird as hell seeing as it was around '82-83
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:20:21 PM EDT
[#26]
The Sonoran desert after a monsoon rain....specifically, a wet creasote bush
The Pacific coast Morning fog moving inland Green chili roasting Burning hide of a branding session Country ham and red eye gravy |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:20:50 PM EDT
[#27]
Quoted:
smell of cocaine always reminded me of a time of unlimited endurance, attention, and focus. one whiff and I'm overcome with a sense of well-being and euphoria, a tremendous amount of energy, confidence, and competence. You win |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:22:17 PM EDT
[#28]
OK, I listed a smell earlier in the thread.
Sounds - trains/train whistles, I haven't heard one of those since I left the Midwest years and years ago. That sound brings me back to my youth in MN. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:22:31 PM EDT
[#29]
coconut=beach and girls
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:23:41 PM EDT
[#30]
Quoted:
smell of cocaine always reminded me of a time of unlimited endurance, attention, and focus. one whiff and I'm overcome with a sense of well-being and euphoria, a tremendous amount of energy, confidence, and competence. Really? The smell of cocaine always reminds me of the fond times I enjoyed in Thailand with Gary Glitter. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:24:07 PM EDT
[#31]
H20's album F.T.T.W and the sound of skateboard wheels clacking on the cracks of a sidewalk, combined with the smell of new england fall, and I'm right back to a time before I had bills, more hours of work than I know what to do with and beer gut, being an adult sucks balls lol
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:26:58 PM EDT
[#32]
Quoted:
New military surplus clothing and canvas. The smell takes me back vividly to initial issue at Parris Island. What olefactory trigger triggers my PI memories? Hot damp steam from a ironing wool- reminds me of the clothing fitting place at PI. Fresh leaves and fresh wet leaves remind of the woods as a youth growing up; surrounded by Hickories, silver maples, sugar maples, oaks, and half dead chestnut trees. Reminds me of playing cowboys with my brother shooting from behind the woodpiles with cap guns. Hot dust reminds me of the metal venetian blinds that always seemed to have dust on them at my dad's place. Birchwood Casey Sheath Rust Preventative Spray smells an awful lot like hot dusty blinds. Hot extruded rubber, I once walked into a Ford Plastics plant in Schenectady that made door moldings and had an instant flashback to my childhood with hot wheels race tracks. That's probably the strongest trigger that dragged a memory out of nowhere for me. VOC's are like that. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:32:28 PM EDT
[#33]
A smell akin to battery acid...
Car vs train. Bodies, blood and brains. Not all memories are good. Then wood grain spirts. vodka, bourban... Make the memories go away... Many a time i rufuse to even jump a car anymore if i leave the lights on. Fuckit, its why i pay for AAA. That smell. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:37:08 PM EDT
[#34]
Hmmmmm.....
When I hear Ben E. King's "Stand By Me", I think of my dad. He would sing that song when I was a kid. I had a friend that was 17 when he comitted suicide, I remember I was at the table trying not to cry and my dad was in the kitchen singing that song. When I smell the inside of an old classic car that has been sitting for years. You know that old vinyl smell...reminds me of when I was a kid. Guns N' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine", Poison's "Every Rose", those songs remind me of junior high dances. Phil Collin's "Another Day in Paradise", man, that song reminds me of snow. When it came out, I was living in Mineral Ridge, Ohio, right outside of Youngstown. It was winter Dec. '89-Jan. '90ish, and snowing its ass off. The smell of the woods. Fresh cut grass. That army surplus smell. All remind me of being a carefree kid. The smell of an old Lee-Enfield rifle. They smell funny, and as a kid, again, I loved that smell. Sounds? The sound of the starter on a Classic Chevy They sound like nothing else, I'm telling you. That takes me back.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:39:27 PM EDT
[#35]
Quoted:
The Sonoran desert after a monsoon rain....specifically, a wet creasote bush The Pacific coast Morning fog moving inland Green chili roasting Burning hide of a branding session Country ham and red eye gravy Nothing like it.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:40:36 PM EDT
[#36]
The smell of new tires...
I worked for Goodyear in manufacturing for a few miserable years. To this day the smell of new tires makes me cringe. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:40:46 PM EDT
[#37]
Poop!
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:41:17 PM EDT
[#38]
Happy smell: almonds. My slate sponge and container smelled of almonds. Sometimes when I smell them now, it's like I can hear big empty halls and and the other children in the classroom and feel my chalk holder in my hand. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:42:17 PM EDT
[#39]
Pine Sol always reminds me of basic training
Gruyere cheese always reminds me of a ripe dead body. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:43:19 PM EDT
[#40]
The smell of a corn field on a hot August day after a heavy rain really takes me back to my days of being a kid...
...and the time I forgot to cover-up a couple of dead calves that were now floating (and covered in maggots) in the hole I dug for them behind the machine shed. 
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:44:29 PM EDT
[#41]
Just happened to me a few nights ago.....
Where I'm from there are feedlots all around, so it is not uncommon to smell cow feces in the air. It's not strong, but people who visit sometimes can't take it. I'm used to it so I don't notice it usually, but every now and then it is stronger than usual, and when it is it takes me back. I don't know why, but that smell takes me back to one particular night years ago. I remember I had my GSX-R600 and our nightly ritual was to meet up (big group of about 30 bikes) and cruise the town. We weren't a biker gang and we didn't cause trouble. We would cruise, then stop and chat, cruise, then stop and chat. Slowly the pack would thin out and at the end of this night me and 2 of my buddies were left in the movie theater parking lot. We chatted for hours about life in general. We talked about girlfriends (or the lack thereof), cars, bikes, parents, our future, etc. A few times some cops would come in to check on us, not harassing, just checking. I don't live in a huge town (around 35,000) so it's not uncommon for people to know you, the cop knew me and one of my buddies so he knew we weren't causing any trouble. Before we knew it, the sun started coming up. Not realizing how late it was we decided to go grab breakfast. I finally crawled into bed close to 11 AM. There wasn't alcohol involved, there weren't any wild sex stories made that night, it was just me and two of my closest friends spending some bro time together. It's so weird thinking about that now, just how care free that night was and how nothing else mattered. Nowadays, it's so hard for us to work around our schedules to even have dinner together (family, kids, school). Sometimes I wish I could go back to that one night and do it all over again. Life goes by too fast and it's never wrong to stop and smell the cow shit. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:45:28 PM EDT
[#42]
My dad's barbershop always smelled of Barbasol, hot coffee, and cigarettes. I can still remember sweeping up hair for him when I was in elementary school.
When I hear the sound of hair clippers I'm still reminded of him. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:53:52 PM EDT
[#43]
The smell of crude oil. My Dad worked at a refinery and he would come home with the smell of the oil on his clothes. He always came in from the basement door, and there would be a strong odor of oil come filtering up the stairs a minute after he had came in.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:55:46 PM EDT
[#44]
Some guy told me to say "vagina" smell
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:57:25 PM EDT
[#45]
diesel smoke and cigarette smoke together remind me of russia.
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Posted: 11/20/2012 7:57:29 PM EDT
[#46]
Drakkar Noir cologne. It reminds me of getting ready to go out with my wife before we were married. Twenty years married now, where does the time go.
Ahh, the good old 80s. 
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Posted: 11/20/2012 8:03:09 PM EDT
[#47]
The smell of a fresh dollar bill.
mmmmmmmmm. Reminds me of that special lotion that strippers wear, that stays on your hands for hours... mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Reminds me of that first girl i finger banged. That smell was fantastic... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Reminds me of my first wife... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Reminds me of the smell of money. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 8:10:16 PM EDT
[#48]
Quoted: Quoted: The Sonoran desert after a monsoon rain....specifically, a wet creasote bush The Pacific coast Morning fog moving inland Green chili roasting Burning hide of a branding session Country ham and red eye gravy Nothing like it. Amen. And fresh cut alfalfa. |
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Posted: 11/20/2012 8:11:52 PM EDT
[#49]
This time of year...
Potato Sausage and Lefsa... Do I see a dinner pic thread tomorrow? Perhaps 
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Posted: 11/20/2012 8:12:17 PM EDT
[#50]
My first car was a 90 MKII VW Jetta. I went to look at one a few years ago and after driving it I went home with it. It was unbelievable how many stories were brought to my memory from just sitting in the car.
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