The strangest things invoke memories don't they?

My mother used to wear Blue Grass perfume when she was pregnant with me. One year I bought her a bottle for her birthday and it brought back dreadful memories of nausea and heartburn!

The smell of Miltons sterilising liquid takes me back to the nursery at the maternity ward where I gave birth to eldest child.
The smell of lilac reminds me of a small gathering of A level students at a teachers home one summer evening.

Scented geranium house plants! My mother always had them in the house because of the smell. I used to love touching the leaves and smelling them. I have them now myself as they are so easy to grow and propagate.
Now I think it was probably to freshen the room as this was back in the days when everybody smoked. (Have a ciggy -it's good for your nerves!)
Don't get me started on Dad's St Bruno rough cut he smoked in his pipe! I haven't had a whiff of that for ages.

There's nothing wrong with being old fashioned.

Does anyone remember Surprise Peas? They tasted alright but they smelled like sweaty socks !

I loved reading these. I really laughed. I will be 80 in August and your lovely comments took me back to my childhood. Thank you everybody.


Sylvia Davis.

Old Spice and a tweed cap-my dad. He did a manual job and would shave in the evening.And come down and rub his cheek against mine
Scented geraniums -my mum .She grew dozens .Had green fingers
Eau Sauvage .I love the smell but DH can't wear aftershave. I used to buy it for my DB instead He died recently Might ask SIL if can have the bottle I bought him last Christmas .And wear it myself .
Tar melting on a hot roof is my childhood

I love Nivea talc or Johnson's baby powder after my shower. Am I just old fashioned?!

Farleys Rusks... heaven

That combination of milk and baby powder takes me back to the day my first sister was born - a cuddly bundle with a mass of dark curly hair. It's still curly but now silver. The aroma of a box hedge transports me immediately to my granny's magnificent garden - a place where a child could lose herself among the fruit bushes or play forever on the swing. The smell of whatever it is goes into 'Deep Heat' reminds me of my other granny who was constantly anointing her 'lumbago' with some kind of pungent liniment.

Linco56 I use talc! I use baby powder. It makes me feel so nice after a bath. I think bath cubes have been replaced by bath bombs

Thinking of perfumed talc reminded me of my mum telling me a story about her friend who was rather flat chested and was dressing for an office Xmas night out at some dance hall and she decided to plump up her cleavage by stuffing two large powder puffs into her bra after having shaken off most of the loose talc. All was well until the dance floor became rather crowded and people were bumping into one another and all the men in dark suits were walking around looking perplexed and dusting talc from their dark suits...she was OK in her cream evening dress.

The smell of buses takes me right back to childhood and Vosene shampoo, lovely.

My first bottle of perfume was In Love by Norman Hartnell and a pink heart shape plastic bottle of In Love talc...I don't think people use talc any more, or bath cubes either.

I used to make 'perfume' from rose petals when I was very young.
It smelt revolting.

Woodsmoke I love it, it reminds me of my grandfather. Also Drene shampoo you could get in Woolworths. Nivea of course - granny rubbed it in to stop sunburn ! Then Old spice omg. He used to call it Old Mice. Happy days.

Nonnie we had a vegetable man who called at our street weekly
He had a horse and cart, My Dad if he was home was poised with a bucket and shovel for the manure. If he was at work my sister or I had to do it. So embarrassing[Blush]

Sherish. Blue Grass was my first grown up perfume too. In the ladies toilets at dances there was a perfume machine. For 6d you could have a squirt. I recently bought a bottle off the Internet. Don't think it is quite as floral though.

The smell of "Box" hedges on a warm summer day remind me of my first term at boarding school. I smelt it the other day and I was immediately transported back to being 8 years old and feeling very lost and homesick.

Aqua manda perfume reminds me of moving into my first flat in early 70s loved the smell

The smell that I remember is cow parsley. My childhood home had a very large garden part of which was not cultivated and there was masses of cow parsley which we played in. I have even mentioned to my daughter that when I die - if it is in the summer -that she get the florist to put some cow parsley in with the funeral flowers.

though!

DH still uses horse manure on the garden (he lets it rot well first thought, so it doesn't smell!)

Can anyone remember how your dad always put manure on the roses? My dad would get a delivery from a farmer and he would barrow it from the grass verge onto the garden. It was dreadful!

Of course this was in the days before we got all chemical which lent itself to the rhubarb and custard joke ! The old ones are always the best

Nonnie1 - I think you must mean 'Linco Beer'! I remember it well as I loved the stuff.

I see on this thread,that like me,smells seem to be the most evocative sense to trigger a memory. I noticed this phenomenon many years ago and was curious as to why this was. The scientific explanation (put simply!) is as follows;- 'The olfactory bub which starts inside the nose,runs along the bottom of the brain and has direct connections to 2 brain areas that are strongly implicated in emotion and memory,the amygdala and the hippocampus. Interestingly,visual,auditory and and tactile (touch) do not run through these brain areas. This is probably why olfaction (smell) more than any other sense is so successful in triggering emotions and memories'. I find that the smell of creosote,used for weather-proofing fences takes me back over 45 years to when I was 5,and going out into the garden just after my DD had done the annual fence maintenance.