Do you guys have a lot of scents that evoke particular memories? I read about it all the time, you know what I’m talking about, a character in a book is immediately transported back to a long ago place and time just from the whiff of a perfume or a flower or a loaf of bread or something.
I can’t say that my scent memory bank is very full but I had a moment yesterday that was unexpected. 
I bought a big pack of Chap Stick at Sam’s Club, the kind that has tubes of different “flavors.” When I opened it up, picked up the Original Scent Chap Stick, I swear, I had to turn around and make sure my Dad wasn’t in the room with me. It wasn’t some overwhelming transport back to childhood kind of thing, just a quick little thing, and of course I had to start wondering if Dad still even uses that “flavor” of Chap Stick.
Weird, right?
How about you? Got any scents that evoke particular memories for you?
And yes, I’m totally in work-avoidance mode, why do you ask?
NO ONE is in work avoidance mode today like I am! As for scent memories, my Dad used to wear English Leather aftershave. It never occurred to me that he only wore it when we were going somewhere so I always thought that I just got carsick easily. It was really just my first perfume allergy! The scent of that cologne makes me want to immediately vomit……nothing personal to my Dad though!
Since I don’t have much of a sense of smell now, I suppose I don’t really have many scent memories.
The scent of the Butterfly Bush blooms. When I was a child, my grandmother had these growing in the back of her garage. The first time I walked past a flowering Bush in a nursery, I was hit with all sorts of memories and feelings. I have a couple of them in my yard now.
I love the perfume of those flowers!
Funny, how we grew up together and I don’t have that scent memory like you do…
My dad’s after shave, not sure what it is, but I know it when I smell it and he’s been gone 25 years. Ahhhh happy smell indeed.
Oh and medicated ChapStick, makes me happy every time I smell it, it reminds me of the eucalyptus trees we played by when I was a kid! I loved it when the wind blew threw them….ah memories
Oh and Dow bathroom cleaner makes me nauseous every time ….cleaned a nasty dead pill bug pile up with it behind a water heater once…27 years ago. Ick!
Peonies and lilacs remind me of my Grandma Mabel.
Also, I need to see if they still make Camay soap. My mother always thought it was the best for dry skin and I’ve been thinking about it for some odd duck reason lately. Thinking that I NEED Camay soap. Have you noticed, stores sell fewer and fewer bars of soap, everyone uses liquid soap.
Yes, I’m home early from work. Sneezing my fool head off. Emptying tissue boxes. Probably was driving my co-workers crazy.
My first teacher, (she also taught my own kids), had ‘magic cream’, if you grazed your knee or bumped your head out came the magic cream… it was slightly antiseptic, (that was the magic part) and took the sting away and if I try hard I can still smell it even from memory…. I always have it on hand for my grandchildren,……it’s called Germoline here in th UK
Guess what, she was always my favourite teacher!!!!
I think I ment Anaesthetic…… lol…..
Oh my yes! Any lotion that has the slightest scent of maraschino cherry brings to mind the vivid chariot races of Ben Hur. That movie was probably one of the first major motion pictures I ever saw. It was in Detroit while I was attending the 4-H Livestock show with my fat lambs. It was our evening entertainment in a fancy theater. Apparently I did a lot hand ringing near my face during those scenes. I also have good memories of that movie – Charlton Heston’s deep blue eyes. 😉
I have lots of scent memories…and I have even more Deja Vu memories where I will be doing something (usually cooking, cleaning or laundry related) the exact same way as my mom or grandma would…it’s a strange, but comforting feeling.
AND I avoided work by going to lunch with my sister and visiting my nephew’s classroom. 😉
Arid deoderant sends me to Seattle, WA when I was in the 6th grade and we were living in an apt in downtown Seattle in order to be near Daddy while he was on a few months duty in Seattle. He was a Naval officer and we traveled and moved a lot when I was a child.
I’m sure there are more memories. But, that one is really clear.
I have lots of these memories. The smell of gardenias always makes me think of my mom, who wore White Shoulders perfume, which smells like gardenias. Old Spice reminds me of my dad. English Leather, my brother. Musk for Men, my first real boyfriend. The fragrance of lilacs reminds me of the summers spent beneath huge lilac bushes with my best friend and kindergarten crush.