What smells take you back to your childhood?

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Pete Prescott… All that. Tarmac. Bluebells.mothballs.bonfires. the sea. Cigar smoke. Lavender. Ink. love that smell !  Damp. Brylcream! The smell of musty village halls

Max Marriott… Knights Castile soap, 4711 cologne my Nan used to wear

James Johnson… school crayons

Barry Newton… Horses being shod

Ernest Ballard…  1,3,7. And Greek bread baking in Cyprus

Ian Mantel… Grandad’s shed, coal tar soap

Arthur Sutherland… Your Aunties perming their hair

Wendy Weaver… Freshly mowed grass.

Phil Gill… Vomit and sawdust in the school corridor. Vick.

Yvonne Cleland… Nice. Laundry boiling in the gas boiler every week, liquorice, cabbage, the rosin on my violin bow, plimsolls.

Clifford Rose… The grease on those old green electric trains we used between Hastings and Brighton.

Julian Jules Carter… Fog

Jim Breeds…  I don’t think my childhood is over yet!

Martin Richter… white pepper in mash ?

Alan Esdaile… The Beatles chewing gum with cards, dad boiling the bones from the butcher   for gravy, home made vegetable soup in the pressure cooker.

Alan Pepper… Church ( yuk ! ) . Pencils . Real gravy ( yummm !! ) . Real shandy . Hop garden . Shoe polish.

Lyn Humphrey… I went into some council offices and suddenly found myself thinking strongly of my old infants school. Took me a few seconds to realise it was the smell of the disinfectant that the cleaner was using. Strange how I’d never come across that in the intervening years. And I recently caught a whiff of demerara sugar, which took me back even further, to when my Mum fed me porridge with that sugar on top!

Dave Nattress… From the list first, wax crayons from infant school, freshly mowed grass – do mine too often, wet pavement in the first few minutes of a rain shower – wondeful, swimming pools – well the chemicals, a new book – open the middle pages and smell them, dolls – pass. Then… steam engine smoke, Wrights coal-tar soap – in my Grandmother’s bathroom every summer when we went up north on holiday, little Pink roses at the end of my garden where I grew up, fireworks, heat from valve-amps (well I was a touch older by then), yes as Phil Gill says, kids at school always honking up, smelly school lavatories, nearly said bogs, mothballs for sure, TCP, new leather shoes.

Pauline Richards… Paraffin stored on a new wooden shed

Colin Gibson… The smell of terrified adolescence

Shaun Wright… Brand new Carpets

Karen Towner… School milk!

Gary Thomas… Bacon and leek pudding. That smelled wonderful. I have not had one in years.

Conan Howard… the smell of our coal bunker in the cellar

Sid Saunders… Castrol R racing oil when I was Grasstrack racing.

Merv Kennard… hot tarmac being layed and rolled.

4 thoughts on “What smells take you back to your childhood?”

  1. I went into some council offices and suddenly found myself thinking strongly of my old infants school. Took me a few seconds to realise it was the smell of the disinfectant that the cleaner was using. Strange how I’d never come across that in the intervening years. And I recently caught a whiff of demerara sugar, which took me back even further, to when my Mum fed me porridge with that sugar on top!

    Reply
  2. From the list first, wax crayons from infant school, freshly mowed grass – do mine too often, wet pavement in the first few minutes of a rain shower – wondeful, swimming pools – well the chemicals, a new book – open the middle pages and smell them, dolls – pass. Then… steam engine smoke, Wrights coal-tar soap – in my Grandmother’s bathroom every summer when we went up north on holiday, little Pink roses at the end of my garden where I grew up, fireworks, heat from valve-amps (well I was a touch older by then), yes as Phil Gill says, kids at school always honking up, smelly school lavatories, nearly said bogs, mothballs for sure, TCP, new leather shoes.

    Reply

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