Sights, sounds,smells and tastes that take you back to being a kid again

[scooby365]

Freshly applied paint : I remember by Dad painting the hall just before Christmas, and the odour was so strong that it lasted throughout Christmas period. Not quite the same nowadays with low odour paint but when I catch a wift of paint it can take me back.

New carpets : The rare occassion we had a new carpet in the sitting room then the settee and chairs would be moved away from the walls and I was able to use the space as tunnels in quickly arranged adventure games. All too soon would the tunnels be closed off again ...

Certain scented soaps : One smell I picked up at work recently took me straight back to reception class. I don't know what the soap was but it was close enough to whatever was used at my first school.

That dusty smell from an electric fire after it has not been started for a while : Like many children growing up in the 70's I guess, we did not have central heating at home. I can remember the single electric fire at the bottom of the stairs. It would only be turned on in the middle of winter and there would be a dusty smell wafting around the stairs + landing. I'd setup my toys on the landing so that I would feel the heat coming from the fire as it took ages to warm up the bedrooms.

New pyjamas : I remember a pair of Six Million Dollar man pj's. The top did not fasten with buttons so you had to pull it over your head, just like the red top that the Steve Austin toy wears. The pyjama's were so warm and Steve Austin was my hero.

Milk bottles chinking together : Straight back to early mornings when I worked as a milkboy. Mainly think about the summer and in particular the long 7 week school break. Once we had finished deliverying the milk then the day was mine to do whatever I wanted.

How about you?

[wispa lover]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

The only thing I can think of from this thread right now is a smell.
The primary school near where I live and where I used to go had this strange odour of disinfectant.
The school is also a voting station once every few years, and yes, the smell is still around.
If only I could put it in a jar. LOL

[FLYING SAUCER]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

Yes, the odd smell you talk of was in my school also. Might it have been floor polish? I just dont know.

I was 6 in 1971 and the smell I remember was sharps Butter Snaps! We have Dime Bars now, but not quite the same sickly smell as the old Butter Snaps.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

The other day I opened a packet of PVC document wallets and the smell took me right back. I think I had a Wendy house made of the same stuff once. I also recently walked into a stair well with really old, cracked lino and the smell coming off that reminded me of the store room of the wool shop I used to play in when my aunt worked there on Saturdays. The same smell was in my nanna's lader too!

[Wil]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

Apparently thinking is that as smell is the sense quickest to deteriorate we accumliate less smells over our lives and so memory attachment is greater to smells than sight and sound. There's a wall outside our doctors covered in a shrub (I guess it's probably Honeysuckle) that is a time machine straight back to 1970s summer holidays. Never fails.

[Hooper68]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

The smell of parafin from a heater my Grandparents had in their back room.

[moonvisage]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

a new leather jacket sets me smiling.I remember getting a really cheap one when i was a child,and the smell was incredible.Ever since then,i love the smell of new leather jackets.

[Marine Boy]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

I also have a smell-of-leather memory. When I started school, I had a new brown leather satchel. Just occasionally, I come across just the right kind of leather again, and I'm transported back.

[moonvisage]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

The smell of leather,when i got my jacket,reminds me of a specific christmas time,when we had snow.snow is very rare on the coast were we are,so i remember little extras like walking to my friends house and wanting to skip i was so happy.Walking in the snow,wearing my new DM boots and a new leather smelling jacket was wonderful to me.

[Richard1978]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

I remember my relatives' houses smelling of different household cleaners than my Mum used, & if I smell something like them I suddenly think of them.

[kazboot]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

The sound of the ice cream van tune always takes me back to childhood summers. The smell of plasticine takes me back to school days.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

The sound of an ice cream van does that for me too

[Trickyvee]

Other people's houses smelling 'funny'

As a child I remember certain people's houses smelling really horrible. It wasn't horrible as in an old people musty smell or pets etc. It was a very particular smell. Perhaps it was a type of air freshener or cleaner or upholstery smell. I don't know but I found it disgusting and wondered how on earth the people could stand to spend any length of time in their house with that reek. I've never smelled it since, thank goodness!

I also had an aunt with no sense of smell and she had about a million air wicks all over the house because she was paranoid about it smelling bad. It wasn't upleasant but very overpowering!

[childofthe80's]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

My grandmother had this metal cabinet in her kitchen that held office supplies..pens, erasers,markers, tablets, paper etc..and it had this real officey?? smell to it. Anytime I am around a lot of paper I think of her.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Sights, sounds and smells that take you back to being a kid again

There was a stationery/book shop that had quite a few branches in my area when I was young. That had a very distinctive smell, no matter which branch you were in. There's only one shop left now. I'd not been in for about 20 years but that wall of smell hit me as soon as I walked in. It still smells exactly the same!