Smells and memories

The smell of a steam train instantly takes me back to my very young childhood.

The smell of Coty L'Aimant mixed with cigarette smoke mixed with face powder takes me back to going upstairs in a bus, with my mother, and feeling travel sick.

L'Aimant still makes me nauseous....

Wrights coal tar soap, my mother in law used nothing else .

I remember when they used to spread tar on the roads. Obviously we don't get that smell now but now and again I get a whiff of something that reminds me of it.

Jif (before it became Cif) reminds me of summer holidays in a caravan in Wales. It belonged to farming friends of ours and although we always had loads of fun as our children were all the same age, they weren't that fussed about cleaning.

I used to set everyone a job while I got stuck in.

Lying on my back in summer grass looking through it at the blue sky and smelling chamomile.

Scent is a very evocative thing isn't it.....the pinkyred soap in train loos ( in the past) makes me a child again and en route to a holiday in Blackpool or Morecambe.
New leather takes me back to being eleven and going off to school excitedly with a new satchell.
Wet dog reminds me happily of a favourite Aunt's house ( they had some kind of huge hound, a gentle giant) it always seemed a bit damp.

Lenor. Transports me back to 1982. DH was on a ship in Falkland Sound. Must have been using it that spring/summer.