The littlest things can be memory triggers.
A few months ago John and I were walking on a local trail and happened upon a building renovation. The contractors were sawing through raw lumber and the smell immediately took me back to childhood afternoons spent in my father’s workshop. One whiff triggered memories of the heady combination of sawdust, wood glue, the sounds of his lathe and skill saw and wood clamps, and the warmth radiating from the pot-bellied stove while I watched Dad work.
A few others I’ve noticed lately…
The 4-Colour Bic Pen
This reminds me of my elementary school teacher, Mrs. D. She used these pens exclusively and I can still hear her clicking between colours. Also, strangely, I can still remember she had a permanent, triangular-shaped notch out of one of her fingernails. How does that happen? But it was always there.
CICADAS
Our rustic summer cottage. No electricity or running water but lots of books, a hammock and hot afternoons where the air was alive with the sound of cicadas.
FURNACE OIL
My maternal grandmother’s house: it always smelled like furniture polish, formica countertops, furnace oil and hints of must coming from her basement. I know if someone had bottled that smell several decades ago and opened the jar under my nose today I’d be able to immediately identify it as Grammie’s House. I think of this every time I listen to the lyrics of Stressed Out by twenty one pilots:
Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young
How come I’m never able to identify where it’s coming from?
I’d make a candle out of it if I ever found it
Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I’d probably only sell one
It’d be to my brother, ’cause we have the same nose…
Your turn. What are some sights, sounds, or smells that immediately take you back to a moment or a place or a sensation from years gone by? I remember reading about a bride who wore a new perfume on her wedding day and after that only wore it once a year on her wedding anniversary. I don’t wear perfume, but this sounds like such a powerful memory trigger!
Nicole MacPherson
There’s a certain outdoor scent that I have never figured out what it was – a hay-like smell, kind of? – that always reminds me of road trips to Saskatchewan when I was a kid. I used to think it was a prairie thing but I have smelled it here as well. I have no idea what it is or even how to describe it but it takes me back immediately.
Elisabeth
These childhood scents can be hard to describe! I think they’re often an amalgam?
Fresh-cut grass always reminds me of our first day home after summer vacation. We’d open all the windows to air out the house and it was always in August so lots of people cutting grass. Gives me the warm fuzzies 🙂
Jan Coates
Same about the grandparents’ homes – for my Pearson grands, it’s the smell of fieldstone basements, full of firewood. For my Mingo grands, it’s a combo of biscuits baking, the woodshop smells you’ve described, and Noxema skin cream (in those low blue jars). On the other hand, I’ve never gotten that “new baby” smell – unless it’s Ivory Snow:)
Elisabeth
I remember Noxema. It reminds me of summer. We used to put it on sunburns to soothe the ache! Can you still buy Noxema, I wonder? Haven’t smelled that scents in years.
Jenny
Ah, smells! They are such a memory trigger. I have a lot of things that trigger memories of childhood summers- like if for some reason we have the AC off and windows open- doesn’t happen often- that warm, humid air wafting into the house brings me right back to summers in Illinois. It’s funny that I can’t think of any specific smells that remind me of my grandparent’s house- I remember so many things about that house, but not how it smelled? Now it’s bugging me- I’ll have to ask my sister about that.
Elisabeth
In terms of childhood smells it’s mostly my Grammie’s and then our house after summer vacation (which I link with fresh-cut grass).
Flavia
My sister and I call this phenomenon a “smell portal”. And true to the song lyric, we’ve experienced the phenomenon simultaneously, turned to each other and said where we’d been transported!
Elisabeth
Smell portal – love it!
I wonder if my siblings would have the same scent cues for my grandmother’s house? I’ve never stopped to ask them, but to me it’s so distinct in my memory…
Michelle G.
Oh, that pen! It’s so funny because I just bought one! I saw it and couldn’t resist such a fun memory from the past. It’s amazing how smells in particular can bring back a memory from the past. There’s a certain smell in autumn, a wet-leafy kind of smell, that brings me back to buying new clothes for back-to-school.
Elisabeth
I suspect a lot of people have back-to-school smell triggers! Such a special and memorable time of year.
When I smell a university library scent it always (regardless of the time of year) reminds me of September in my first year of college. It’s bittersweet smell. It was a stressful six months for me, but also so formative.
Lisa’s Yarns
The smell of mirepoix sautéing brings me back to Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings at my parents. It is one of my absolute favorite smells! The smell of cut grass reminds me of my childhood because I spent many hours mowing our massive lawn!
Elisabeth
I just LOVE the smell of fresh-cut grass. One of my favourite smell associations with summer and childhood.
Grateful Kae
I am SUPER smell-sensitive! The sawdust smell is a big one for me too. My dad had a garage workbench and was often sawing something/working on a project in the summer, so that smell instantly instantly takes me back to running around in the yard at dusk, in a hot summer evening, with my dad in the garage and a baseball game on the radio. I have a lot of summertime smells that really bring me back to childhood summers. I am actually extremely nostalgic for my childhood summers because I loved them so much. My mom was a teacher and home in the summers and I feel like they were just the perfect mix of fun. We also were the pre-screen era, of course (well, not counting TV/movies mostly) so I just have so many great memories of playing outside, in the basement, building forts, etc. A big one for me is the smell of rain. I associate that so much with summer afternoons with our screen porch door open while it would often storm, and my sister and I retreating to the cool basement to play…. So many smells! I think about this topic often.
Elisabeth
I loved reading about all your childhood smells!
I loved, loved, loved listening to baseball games on the radio on summer evenings!!
Suzanne
There is a particular summer scent that I encounter every once in a while — some blend of un-airconditioned space, dust, and cleaning solvent — that reminds me powerfully of moving into the dorms at the end of every summer.
Johnson’s baby shampoo used to remind me instantly of the earliest days of my daughter’s life. That was the “free” shampoo we got from the hospital, and the nurse taught us how to bathe her using that shampoo. For a long time, I kept a tiny bottle and would take it out once in a while to smell it… but eventually I “wore out” the scent.
Elisabeth
Aww. I love that you kept a tiny bottle and definitely know that Johnson’s baby shampoo smell! It’s iconic and comes with so many intense memories, of course.
sarah
I love those pens! Total middle school flashback. The smell of leaves burning in the fall takes me right back to my midwest childhood– high school football games, Halloween trick or treating– all of it
Elisabeth
I had no idea they still made them, but I’ve seen them floating around more lately. Such a flashback, right?
NGS
It’s always smells. The smell of fresh cow manure on a field will take me right back to childhood. The smell of Polo and cheap milk chocolate makes me think of my dad. And there’s a certain laundry detergent/fabric softener smell that makes me think of my MIL. It’s crazy how important the sense of smell is!
Elisabeth
I wonder if Polo is an aftershave? When I think of my dad, I think of aftershave! (And the smell of coffee…)
coco
Movies and songs tend to easily bring me back to memories to the decade/period of my life. REcently i started to listen to latin mix when running and it reminds me how i lived in buenos aires in my teens.
Memories are so special, they are always there someone, to be ready to get out when triggered.
Elisabeth
YES! Movies definitely take me back, and music even more so. I have some very strong associations with a few songs that were being played regularly at specific milestones in my life. I hadn’t been thinking about music, but it’s HUGE for me!
Elinoora
Bread, as in freshly baking bread and dough, especially sourdough. My mom used to make all our bread, and especially in winter the loaf pans would be near the heating to rise. She still bakes her own bread, but as she’s intolerant for wheat and spelt, she’s trying out new recipes. Last time I was home it was a rice sourdough bread, and it tasted great!
Also, I have my grandmother’s dresser, and for the longest time, everything I stored in there would smell faintly of her smell. It’s gone now, which is kinda sad.
Elisabeth
The comment about the scent in your grandmother’s dresser gave me all the feels, Elinoora.
Fresh bread is one of my favourite smells!
Ally Bean
Food: Mint chocolate ice cream and I’m immediately at kid getting a sugar cone at the local dairy that closed decades ago.
Scent: A whiff of Clinique’s Aromatic Elixir, my mother wore that.
Sight: A blossoming tea rose bush puts me back in college in England, walking from my dorm to class.
Elisabeth
These are all so evocative; my mother never wore perfume, but I can imagine that must be a tremendously strong memory trigger for you.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Scents can be such a memory trigger.
Definitely furniture polish… something my dad did before Christmas and any other big party.
…
Strange… I can’t come up with any other scents right now. Probably because I am having a migraine and try not to smell anything as of right now.
Elisabeth
The smell of a particular cleaning product reminds me of my childhood home and cleaning baseboards with a toothbrush in my bedroom while helping my mom with spring cleaning. I LOVED spring cleaning. The whole house sparkled and smelled like lemon cleaner. I hadn’t thought about that in a while until you mentioned the furniture polish scent!!
San
I love that 4-color Bic pen. I used to have one of those (I used to be – still am, come to think of it – fond of different colored pens to write with! I was particularly fond of purple.)
On one of my recent runs, I came by a Mexican café in our neighborhood that serves early breakfast and for some reason, the smell reminded me of the cafeteria at Tufts college in Boston where I spent an English Summer Course when I was 17. Random!
Elisabeth
Wow! What a specific memory trigger. I love when things like that happen, especially since they’re such a surprise. You had no idea when you left your house that morning you were going to think back to your time in Boston as a teenager!
Anne
OK, seriously. Are you listening to me through my phone? This is on my mental list for my next post. I had SUCH a similar experience to you getting transported back to your dad’s workshop the other day, and it made me start thinking about what I call Flashes (as in, flashes of memory). Usually – albeit not always – they are GOOD memories, too. Mine brought up things and people I hadn’t thought of in years. Sigh. <3 Thank you for sharing yours!
Elisabeth
Ha! Yup – listening in to your thoughts.
It’s crazy how intense those memory triggers can be…