sights and smells in our memory - Page 2

dragonfly · 09-03-2010, 05:24 PM

Washday doesn't smell anymore with automatic washing machines. I can remember the smell of washday when I was a child. My mum had a large gas boiler which she boiled all the clothes in, then I put them through a large mangle as I turned the handle.

Gentian · 09-03-2010, 06:28 PM

I remember washday too DF. if I smell the flowers on a privet hedge it reminds ne of playing our garden where we had it. We would lean poles against the hedge, cover them in cloths to make a tent and this trapped the scent of the flowers.
I had a bottle of Channel No. 5 for my 21st and opened it on my wedding day. When I use it now I can still see the exact spot I was when I opened it.

Crocus · 09-03-2010, 06:42 PM

I think smells and sounds are very strong senses - it can trigger something in the brain one doesn't normally think about. It's like the tomato and onion sauce my mum sometimes made in the afternoons with a fried egg in - up till today I cannot eat egg and tomato together. I love both, buteach on it's own. Even smelling the two together makes my feel sick.

eleanor2 · 09-03-2010, 08:38 PM

i would love to know why i absolutely love the smell of lavendar.i just breath in the smell and straight away i feel calm and dreamy.i also love the colour lavendar.i am sure i heard my mum say when i was born she had a new lilac coloured bed set and it was her favorite colour when she was pregnant with me.

jazzactivist · 10-03-2010, 08:47 AM

That's funny crocus, as my OH is exactly the same, although he can't stand them apart either!

I remember as a child old ladies used to smell of lavender and grandads of eau de cologne soap and pipe tobacco, so maybe you got your love of lavender from then.

Another smell that really takes me back is of lemon washing up liquid, as my very first 'boyfriend' and I used to offer to do the washing up so that we could hold hands in the kitchen. The taste of strawberries reminds me of when I was a toddler and we had a patch of strawberries in the garden. I knew what they were and started picking and eating them when they were small and green. My dad put a net over them to stop me and the birds from getting them, but I remember going out there every day and standing watching them slowly turn red. One day I couldn't wait any more and scrambled under the net and gorged myself on them. The buckles on my shoes caught in the net and I couldn't get out again, so I just decided to go to sleep right there in the hope that no-one would find me and see my 'crime', surrounded by the smell and taste of strawberries. Even now I can still feel the warm earth on my cheek and the satisfying taste and smell.

dinger · 10-03-2010, 07:05 PM

I remember as a child the smell of tar when the roads were being renewed then watching the steam roller .

Gentian · 10-03-2010, 07:19 PM

And do you remember, Dinger, playing with sticks in the melted tar on hot days? You always got it on your socks and got into trouble when you got home.

dragonfly · 10-03-2010, 07:20 PM

Eleanor I remember mum having a craze for lavender when she was having you. Everything was lavender colour or smell. Even the soap and facecloths as well as bedding was lavender. Isn't it funny that you are mad on it.

Dinger I used to love the smell of tar when they were doing the roads.

eleanor2 · 10-03-2010, 08:14 PM

d.f i heard something like that but have never actually asked mum.i think i will ask her.i can remember the lilac(lavendar) candlwick bedspread with yellow flowers on.they had it for years.also my dad drove a tarmac truck when i was very young so you talking of tarmac reminds me of a trip i went in this massive tarmac machine.

jazzactivist · 11-03-2010, 07:45 AM

I loved the smell of tarmac too, and remember digging in the wet tar with a stick. In my OH's last poetry book he has a poem about his neighbour making a pog for marbles by digging a hole in the soft tar. I like the sounds and smell of rain on concrete on a really hot day. The sizzle as it hits the concrete for the first time and the hot, dusty smell always reminds me of summers in South Africa. You were lucky having a mum who got a passion for lavender during her pregnancy with you, mine had a fetish for coal and used to stand by the coal bunker breathing in the smell, and even ate it crushed up on a spoon!