It's incredible how evocative smells can be to a human; a single scent can take us back years to a time and place in which we smelled it last and the memories we made there.
It could be an amazing meal we ate somewhere, the scent of the garden wafting through the window at the place we called home, the scent of the beach during holidays as children, the perfume a relative or loved one wore, cakes baking in the kitchen or simply the smells of nature after it rains...no matter what it is, scent has the amazing power of transporting us to that moment when we find that scent later on and it's the memories and emotions attached to it that have the value.
There's so many I have myself, a few I mention above.
I used to go to the bakery with my mum each week when I was a little kid before I was old enough to go to school and remember the smell of the freshly baked bread, sweet buns and cakes; I'd often get a treat from the baker and recall walking down the street getting sugar all over my face while I ate it; I recall my mum looking at me happily and that's the thought I have when I go to a bakery now. Good times. Simple times.
I love the smell of vanilla, it reminds me of someone special, the smell of books as I've spent much of my life with my head in one of them, and I love the smell of cut grass, the ground after it rains (petrichor), the smell of a summer storm coming in, campfires and the fruit tree orchard in spring; coming from the country smells like that were all around and when I smell them now it's like I'm taken back to my youth and I simply love the feeling.
So, I figured I'd put it out there to you and task you to comment below with one single smell or scent that takes you back to your childhood or a very memorable and important part of, or moment in, your life. If you'd like to give it a go please comment below.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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I didn't know moisturizers could be scented, but I got a new one recently that reminds me so much of Grandpa's aftershave even though he died like 20 years ago. It's wild how much smell can link to memory.
It's really cool when scents remind us of people that are no longer with us right? I know that sometimes they're a bit out of our minds so bringing them back like this is always welcome I think.
Hope you're well mate, long weekend here...yay!
For most of my life my mother used a particular bath powder and every night when I was small, she would tuck us in and I thought she was so beautiful and smelled so good. She continued to use that same bath powder until her death. As we cleaned out her house, that bath powder is something that I wanted to keep. It has a place of honor in my current bathroom. The scent is probably fading over the years but every so often when I enter the room I can smell it. It's not everytime...just sometimes.
On the flip side, my father loved liver and onions so my mother cooked it often...way too often. My sister and I hated it and spent many a two hour dinner sitting at the table trying not to gag as we cut that shit into miniscule pieces and tried to mask the taste by burying it in mashed potatoes or some other side dish
It is kinda giving me the dry heaves right now..yuck . That's one I can absolutely do without ever smelling again.
Edit - Certainly not shit photography
Liver and onions, nope not my thing either so I'm with you on that count! 🤮
It's nice what you did with your mother's powder, a really nice way to keep that connection to your mother and your childhood.
Nice work indeed.
What envy! What a beautiful landscape, I would love to walk in those fields. My grandmother grew many medicinal plants and flowers, including roses, jasmine, orchids, sunflowers. I always smell some of these scents and remember my grandmother and her plants. I love the smell of wet earth, I am not very demanding, with a nice landscape, a good book and a cup of coffee I am happy.
Your grandmother had a lot of plants and it's nice that smells make you remember her and the moments you spent with her.
I also like your favourite smells, nature, coffee...sometimes the best things are the simple things.
As you read many aromas came to my mind and heart evoking memories but if I must mention only one, it is the aroma of lemon cake made by my godfather, husband of my great aunt, sister of my maternal grandmother. He was Italian, and had done his military service in the navy, there he learned to bake and made delicious lemon cakes and sweet bread for Christmas that I have never smelled that delicious aroma again. He was very special to me. His name is Atilio.
Thank you for bringing back this great memory.
Lemon cakes...yum!
Its aroma is impossible to confuse... I'd say there's my godfather baking...
Smells bring me joy, but also sadness. When I smell the scent of tobacco, for example, it reminds me of my father and there is joy and sadness mixed together.
Your beautiful photos gave me the feeling of smelling all the perfume of those flowers. Friend @galenkp a hug and I wish you a good weekend.🤗😀
Sadness and joy...I guess if one is to feel sadness joy is a welcome addition right?
Thanks for commenting, have a good weekend.
There are probably dozens or hundreds of scents that can trigger some of my memories, but I'll write one that I like, and is a bit silly.
When I was little, my best friend from elementary school and I often played in my yard. it often happened that we were there when my father returned from work and parked the car.
It was a blue Trabant 601 that was produced in Zwickau (what was then East Germany). Plastic creature from a car with two doors, gearbox next to the steering wheel with 4 speeds and a two-stroke engine.
The two of us smarties loved the smell his engine gave off when it burned fuel.
We often knew to stand behind the car and smell the exhaust gases of the engine, mixed with a large amount of air (because if there was no air, there would be no two of us 😅).
That "smell" was accompanied by the specific sound of a two-stroke engine...
And that's why the sound of a chainsaw or a grass trimmer and the smell of burnt fuel brought me back to that memory of my childhood and playing with my friend. Which I hear and smell when the employees in the communal, urban greenery, rearrange the parks in my neighborhood.
The old blue Trabant smell, can't say I've had the pleasure of smelling it but I understand the point.
You've probably never had the chance to see such a car (you from Australia).
Just like the Wartburg, an East German vehicle.
But you must have had the opportunity to see a Volkswagen Käfer (VW Beetle), which was produced in many more copies all over the world.
But the Beetle did not have a two-stroke engine, unlike the Trabant and Wartburg 🙂
I've seen them, on TV and there's one or two at car shows now and then, not on the roads as they don't comply with the ADR (Australian Design Rule) so were never brought into the country for sale.
As for the VW Beetle, I've owned a few.
If I were to ask, they wouldn't be approved for production and use on the streets even by the DDR (Duskobgd Design Rule) 😁
Yep, rubbish from what I've heard.
Hi Galen, it is very true that scents are great time machines, capable of bringing you back to places and experiences that are no longer there.
In my case, a very significant scent is from second hand or/and antiquarian bookstores. It is a smell between damp and earthy, nothing exotic.
It is a smell that brings back memories of good times spent with booksellers, who years ago were more than just sellers. I remember the chats with María Fuentetaja, then with her son Bernardo, people of exceptional culture who turned every moment into an opportunity for a get-together.
Smell that gives away my age. Nice topic, Galen.
Isn't it incredible how a simple smell can make one think and feel so much? I think it's cool really, a nice reminder sometimes of better times...of course, smells can make one think of bad times as well I guess.
You are right, smells can also bring back memories of bad situations, which is not bad either, in principle, as it serves to put us on alert.
I have a book, Andersen's fairy tales. My mother read this book to me in the evenings when I was 5-6 years old. I remembered the smell of this book. Several decades later, I opened this book and inhaled the aroma of its pages, the smell remained the same as in childhood.
I recently read that it is useful for us to remember our early years by certain things. Old neural connections begin to work. And these warm memories are very pleasant.
That's. Lol, I think certainly a memory to. Herish and hold on to.
Smells and sounds for sure can take me to special places. I still remember the cabin we used to rent when I was a kid and the smells and sounds associated with that. I used to know a girl who wore the perfume "red". I'd be able to pick it out in a heartbeat if I smelled it again. Needless to say my wife wears something else and I can pick that out too! There is a cologne that I really like called aqua de gio, but her brother used to wear it so I am not allowed to! 😃
A wants are pretty powerful and memorable, even when it comes to food...I sometimes smell foods that carry me all the way to some place far away in another part of the world, the memories and all.
The photo is very beautiful, there are many beautiful flowers on both sides of the road. The trees in the background add another dimension to the photos. It looks like you are well versed in photography
I'd not say I know much about photography, I simply point the camera and press the button; sometimes it turns out ok.
Hello vanilla boy,
The smell of my grandmother's house on my father's side I can't describe, but it's something unique that I only feel when I'm there. And it is only in that house that she lived there.
Maybe one day I will be able to find the right words to do so.
(There are many important smells in my life, but you told us to mention only one).
;)
Hello grandma's house girl.
😅
This place is really beautiful, I am really impressed by your photography. Actually nothing happens on the beauty of nature.
Thanks, and yeah it's a great spot indeed.
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