Odors

[Bright Raven]

The sense of smell can have a powerful affect on memory by bringing back past experiences. For example, I associate Christmas with a lot of olfactory pleasures. The smell of cedar trees, food, burning wood and mothballs. Not many people may associate Christmas with mothballs (naphthalene).

In our old farm house, All of the Christmas stuff was stored in a deep dark closet with lots of mothballs. At Christmas, the living room was filled with the odor of naphthalene and cedar.

I like the odor of cattle, dogs, even the faint odor of a skunk. One of my favorite odors is bunt gun powder.

A scene in the movie Apocalypse Now always struck me as unique:

https://youtu.be/bPXVGQnJm0w

 

[True Grit Farms]

We use mothballs for rodent control, it's not working so well this year. The sense of smell can be good or awful, you know like some of those old ladies in church?

 

[callmefence]

My favorite smells

My wife
Horses
Leather
A baby
A bulldog
Rain

Edit to add a big stack of Cash :cowboy:

 

[Bigfoot]

1. The top of a baby's head, that ain't been out of bath water too terrible long.
2. A small greasy restaurant here called Ferrell's.
3. A particular grape, that I don't even know the variety of. Many old people had one in their backyard, when I was young. The seed was nearly as large as the grape. Haven't seen one in many years. Loved the smell of those things.

 

[bball]

The sense of smell can have a powerful affect on memory by bringing back past experiences.

It's powerful how strongly our olfactory organs are tied to our memory.
My grandpa smoked a pipe and I loved the smell of it. He wore overalls and split firewood every morning after breakfast. He would sit me up on a log or stump while he split wood. He died when I was barely 4, but I recall him vividly. The safest place in the world for me was by his side. To this day, when I smell a pipe being smoked, it takes me back to those memories and even that overwhelming feeling of being 'safe'.

My wife uses some variety of bath or shower wash that has black currant and vanilla in it and it is about one of the sweetest, sexiest smelling things I have ever encountered. I hope they never stop making that stuff!

 

[backhoeboogie]

It's powerful how strongly our olfactory organs are tied to our memory.
My grandpa smoked a pipe and I loved the smell of it. He wore overalls and split firewood every morning after breakfast. He would sit me up on a log or stump while he split wood. He died when I was barely 4, but I recall him vividly. The safest place in the world for me was by his side. To this day, when I smell a pipe being smoked, it takes me back to those memories and even that overwhelming feeling of being 'safe'.

My wife uses some variety of bath or shower wash that has black currant and vanilla in it and it is about one of the sweetest, sexiest smelling things I have ever encountered. I hope they never stop making that stuff!

Yes. Nice word expression bball. One of my granddad's took a chow puppy home from a den of wild dogs. Raised that puppy to be a good dog. One of the best I have ever known. Now, any time I hear a chow dog bark, I also get the nostalgic feelings you describe.

Puppy breath always gives me the warm fuzzies.

 

[Bestoutwest]

I have a lot of smells that bring back good memories. I know for some folks it can be sounds or food, but for me it's smells that elicit the biggest response:
Cigarette smoke on the wind reminds me of being a little kid and listening to my dad at jazz clubs.
Racing fuel brings me back to going to the races with my parents. Alcohol takes me really back to a little kid b/c they don't use that everywhere and the last tracks I went to that had it are from when I was a real little kid.
Freshly mowed grass, mmmm, I love that smell.
Cheap beer is my favorite b/c the smell takes me right back to being a kid, oops I mean a legal aged kid, and hanging out with my friends every weekend.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Looking around and Trying to figure out, who's armpits it was this morning, in the diner eating breakfast...

 

[dun]

Fresh mowed hay always brings back my younger days. Honest horse sweat brings back painful days.

 

[FlyingLSimmentals]

Yes it's amazing how our senses can revive memories good ones and bad ones.

 

[cowboy43]

Old lady in Church leaned over to husband and whispered in his ear, I just let out a silent fart ,what should I do, he whispered back ,turn your hearing aid on. :hide:

 

[OwnedByTheCow]

The smell of a musty loft brings back good memories.
There's a list of smells in my mind that I can't name exactly but I know what they smell like.

 

[Bright Raven]

Old lady in Church leaned over to husband and whispered in his ear, I just let out a silent fart ,what should I do, he whispered back ,turn your hearing aid on. :hide:

LMAO

I was about 14. Neave Methodist church. A bachelor farmer came every Sunday and sat in the last wooden Pew on the left side. He always fell asleep. One Sunday during sermon, he fell asleep. He let out the loudest fart you can ever imagine. He was in the middle of the Pew and the wood amplified the sound. The fart did not wake him but the loud roar of laughter did. He did not come back for a couple of months. Ole Jim Teegarden.

 

[boondocks]

I have a lot of smells that bring back good memories. I know for some folks it can be sounds or food, but for me it's smells that elicit the biggest response:
Cigarette smoke on the wind reminds me of being a little kid and listening to my dad at jazz clubs.
Racing fuel brings me back to going to the races with my parents. Alcohol takes me really back to a little kid b/c they don't use that everywhere and the last tracks I went to that had it are from when I was a real little kid.
Freshly mowed grass, mmmm, I love that smell.
Cheap beer is my favorite b/c the smell takes me right back to being a kid, oops I mean a legal aged kid, and hanging out with my friends every weekend.

I thought I was the only one! That racing fuel smell was the smell of adrenaline to me. My uncle built sprint cars and raced (in the early days) with guys like Al Unser, Gary Bettenhausen, AJ Foyt...That, and the smell of a coal furnace, and a turkey in the oven, are probably my strongest smell-memories from childhood.

 

[Logar]

We use mothballs for rodent control, it's not working so well this year. The sense of smell can be good or awful, you know like some of those old ladies in church?

My favorite rodent controllers are foxes - if you see them, let them be - they have literally cleaned out a couple of our old barns and are now chewing on the rats that live in the big manure pile.

I was pleasantly surprised at their capabilities.

Cheers

 

[True Grit Farms]

We use mothballs for rodent control, it's not working so well this year. The sense of smell can be good or awful, you know like some of those old ladies in church?

My favorite rodent controllers are foxes - if you see them, let them be - they have literally cleaned out a couple of our old barns and are now chewing on the rats that live in the big manure pile.

I was pleasantly surprised at their capabilities.

Cheers

I don't think a fox would like being under the hood or house.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

We use mothballs for rodent control, it's not working so well this year. The sense of smell can be good or awful, you know like some of those old ladies in church?

My favorite rodent controllers are foxes - if you see them, let them be - they have literally cleaned out a couple of our old barns and are now chewing on the rats that live in the big manure pile.

I was pleasantly surprised at their capabilities.

Cheers

I'll second that! This little fella completely eliminated our groundhog problem.

 

[True Grit Farms]

We use mothballs for rodent control, it's not working so well this year. The sense of smell can be good or awful, you know like some of those old ladies in church?

My favorite rodent controllers are foxes - if you see them, let them be - they have literally cleaned out a couple of our old barns and are now chewing on the rats that live in the big manure pile.

I was pleasantly surprised at their capabilities.

Cheers

I'll second that! This little fella completely eliminated our groundhog problem.

You have ground hogs under your house and hood?

 

[TN Cattle Man]

The coming of Fall with the smell of a tobacco barn fired up in the crisp cool air....

 

[greybeard]

Sale barns all have the same familiar odor. Cow pooh, pee, spat tobacco juice, and $$$$ all mixed together.
Also 'something about' the smell of a small boat marina..outboard motor smell, if you know what I mean.