First thing I thought of, though, was petrichor—that earthy smell in the air when it’s about to rain.

earthy, dense, almost umami.

It seems to waft out of the house!

My mom would grill mackerel and the whole house would smell. Absolutely loved it. When I'd leave work late when I worked in JTown the smell would be wafting outside my building and would remind me of mom's cooking.

My paternal Grandfather had a sizable rose garden. When the garden was in full bloom, the entire street smelled like roses.
Never forget it. We lived three doors down and I would come back from a visit with a bouquet every day.

being in the country when spring blossoms are out and the smell of the air from the blossoms and spring rain. My slow cooker.

I know it’s weird. My late mother was obsessive about cleaning the house ON SCHEDULE. When I would drive in for a weekend visit, arriving late Friday night, I could still smell the Pine Sol. I learned 99% of my cleaning habits from her, but not quite the obsessive timing.

Her self discipline was awe inspiring.

I only buy the lavender one now but my mother was an original PinSol queen.😀

I woke to those smells so many times as a child! The smells of breakfast and being snug under the quilts made me feel so loved and safe and happy!
Also roses. Mom always wore rose sachet.

I guess one childhood memory is mom baking gingerbread. Seems all my smells are food related, hummmmmmm!

Of my Italian grandmother who had me first try a leaf of it when I was 5.

My fave!

blind and disabled and bored out of her mind in a nursing home as she approached 100. Her mind was all still there. I found a plastic Christmas decoration that had cinnamon scent. I don't know if she still had a sense of smell but she played along and thanked me profusely.

I also ended up running through the streets of Paris at about 4am one night. You'd round a corner and be hit with a bakery smell. There seemed to be one on every block.

wonderful.Thank you for sharing and let the memories of your grandmother be a blessing to you

It has been 6 years since my last whiff, regretfully.

... I've drunk so much jet fuel over the years, it's amazing I have two brain cells left to rub together.

-- Mal

Take.

Haven’t had a tree in decades but always buy scraps from the vendors., make a wreath and put some is vases with flowers. My place must smell of fresh pine at Christmas - lovely memories - and I also love the cinnamon memories as well.😀

You are crafty! 👍

I might have to try that. I'll get some red ribbon, and I have some fun gold yarn I can also use.

I think I might have brought branches to put in a vase, too, at times.

😀

soaked them in the bathtub so I could bend them. I made a wreath that was about 3 ft in diameter. I think I added some thinnish ? red purple ribbon, and gold thread to it. So pretty!

Years ago I posted about teaching some of the female Christmas Tree vendors how to make the wreaths. They were curious about me buying scraps year after year. Last year two of the older ones told two of the young men to give me the scraps as a gift and told them I was the reason they now made wreaths - theirs are now better than mine. 😀

Summers of 62 and 63 when my Grandpa took me to Atlantic City to cavort in the ocean. I always got lathered up. It still has the same great smell. Always brings back my Grandpa who died before we got to go in the Summer of 64. At least he didn’t get to go through the stinky collapse of the Phillies that fall. That was an awful smell.

Can't remember.

The smell takes my back to my Aunt Bess's house when I was little.

throw a handful of moth balls into my room from time to time and I had to search to find them so I could get rid of them!

My gramma did a lot of things that were, how should I say it? different.

to you.

took a class in photography. When I read your post it brought me back to the time.

My gramma had lilac bushes in her backyard. We went in and out of her house through the side door and every time we did, the smell would come wafting over.

To this day, I Iove the smell of lilacs. Takes me back there every time.

memories of my wedding day standing in front of lilac bushes. with my husband, Rich.

One of my bucket list wishes is to go up to Mackinac Island for their annual Lilac Festival. One of these days.....

Not my personal favorite, but my mother loved the flowers. As a little girl, I would steal blossoms from my neighbor's bush to give to her. It made her happy and that, in turn, made me feel safe and loved.

As an adult, I know that it wasn't my responsibility to make my mother happy and solve her mental health challenges, but as I kid I instinctively knew that her moods were the key to any hope of household harmony.

So, I enjoy the sweet fragrance because there are positive memories associated with it, but the feelings are complicated.

The smell of my grandmother's house did not bring complicated feelings. I was always happy there. But the scent was complex. There was fresh Italian bread and grated parmesan cheese. I'm sure that garlic and olive oil were in there somewhere.

A couple of years after her death, I opened a bag of fabric scraps she gave me. (She was always sending along fabric scraps.) The scent of her house wafted out of the bag. Our family dog--who loved Grandma-- got so excited sniffing that bag.

Roses. It stopped the hurt temporarily.I stayed at my Baba's house too.We as children are NOT rewsponsible for our parents behavor. I am glad the Lilacs put a temporary stop to it.Bless your glandmother and may the memories of her bring a blessing to your heart and soul.

I spent the first decade or so of my life in the middle east. There was a middle eastern restaurant and market close to the first house my husband and I bought. The first time I walked in the door I stopped dead - it smelled like my childhood, something I hadn't smelled for 20 or 30 years. Every time I used to walk into that store I would stop and take a deep breath. It smelled so good (and yummy) - spices and middle eastern cooking.

Chestnuts roasting on the streets of Buenos Aires in July.

Great post!

I have several favorite smells but since we're in the summer season I'll go with coconut. It smells like the suntan lotion I used growing up.

We lived right by the beach (the Gulf Coast) and when I was a kid we were there at least one out of three weekends (weather permitting).

At night the adults would sit around a campfire drinking their cocktails and probably discussing current events. My mom and dad were very progressive (anti-Viet Nam War, marched in Civil Rights protests, etc.) as were their friends.

In the meantime............. OMG the fun all us kids had running all over the beach could never be articulated! We were baby boomers so every family had an average of four kids. Those are some wonderful childhood memories....

debm55, some of your posts cause me (an I'm sure others as well) to really reflect. I know they initially are fun/foot-loose carefree questions but to me, sometimes they're much more. Like this one. It brought up really great memories and consequently, I feel uplifted..........Thank you...

good times I had, sadly not a lotY with my family , but with cousins, friends and by myself. It makes me very happy that you took the time to share with us and me your memories. They then become part of my shared memories. You make my heart sing with this post., I like to mix it up--serious and funny. I am glad I uplifted you, Upthevibe, Love. Debbie

I'm so sorry you suffered abuse during your childhood.

I had a lot of trauma at the age of 12 and afterwards but it wasn't abuse. My dad (who I absolutely loved with all of my heart and who was the best dad in the world) was killed in a car wreck.

I realize now that I was lucky to have him for the time I did.

what she's doing now.

Nah, that's sort of not true. We're still, you know, friends.

Ohhhh man! First you hear that sizzle, and then smell those peppers and onions! Finally, the smoke from grilled beef, chicken, or shrimp hits you!

Oh yeah!

What? You ordered that grilled chicken salad?

😂

- Fresh peaches and fresh oranges
- Lavender
- Lilacs
- The somewhat medicinal smell of geraniums when you cut them
- Garlic as it is being sauteed
- Miso soup from my 2 years living in Japan with the Air Force nurse corps
- The yeasty smell of bread baking
- One of my shampoos, NouNou by Davines, which has essence of tomato in it - it smells like a salad
- Iodine - my maternal grandparents were a nurse and a dentist, and in their big farm-style kitchen, there was a very tall, shallow triangular cupboard with many shelves, where first aid supplies were kept. It smelled like iodine.

a campfire (memories of my husband),
the smell of freshly popped popcorn (memories of my dad),
the smell of horses (memories of county fairs when I walked through the horse barns)

blessings to your heart.and soul.

Disclaimer: I hate tobacco, smoking, the whole shebang, even though practically everyone I knew growing up depended on it for income (most farmers there still do) However ...........

There is a variety of tobacco known as dark fired which is only grown in Western Kentucky and a little bit of Tennessee. When the tobacco is cut and spiked for hanging, it goes in a barn which is shut tight to keep out the light, but has vents across the top. Smouldering piles of sawdust made with aromatic wood are inside the dark barn (tended 24 hrs a day) Some of the woods used are cherry, peach, pecan, walnut, apple . When the barns are firing, the whole countryside smells divine, and because the smoke is so high in the air and is also rather wispy it isn't irritating.

If I travel to KY during curing season, that first smell lets me know I am home. I would buy a candle if it could duplicate tobacco barn!!

This tobacco is used for pipe and some chewing tobacco. If you go into a pipe shop the smell is very similar.

https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/red-kentucky-tobacco-curing-barn-covered-with-smoke-in-autumn-gm2203967023-621468175

I was standing in the kitchen, facing the curtained window as I opened it.

The aroma hit my nose, and for a second I "saw" the scrubby, wide landscape, along with the carved weathered rocks of the high desert in front of me, before my kitchen reappeared around me! I was astonished, it was fleetlingly so vivid!

I would also "second" posters mentions of fresh cut grass, and Christmas pine trees. One speaks to me of sweet, green warmth, and flowers of Springtime, the other of Holiday glitter, and fun.

I'd also add chopped garlic sautéing in olive oil at home, or passing by restaurants. Yum.

special. The cut grass. and the pine bring me memories too. Thank you for sharing.

It's a distinctive fragrance and my mom's favorite that she often wore going out. We even had a row of the little flowers growing along one side of the house. Reminds me of my mom and my childhood. Also lilac, as we had a huge bush growing in front of our house and some days the fragrance was overwhelming when you walked out the front door.

For nostalgia, Old Spice. My dad used it on everything. If he had a sunburn, douse it in Old Spice, a cut, bring him the Old Spice, lol.

fragrance for men.

Book pages
Peonies
Lilacs
Empty cigar box
Zippo lighters
New car smell
Coffee
Coconut sunscreen
Simple Green cleaner

same for coffee . i cantt stand coffee , but love to go into a coffee shop and sniff.

Last edited Tue Jun 17, 2025, 11:44 AM - Edit history (1)

Absent that, coffee brewing and bacon sizzling in the pan.

-- Mal

When I go for walks this time of year I often smell basswood blossoms - there are a lot of basswood trees around here - which is a wonderful smell. Sometimes I get a whiff of balsam poplar, also known as balm-of-gilead, a tree that grows in the nearby bird sanctuary, which always gives me a blast from the past. There were a lot of these (still are) at my grandmother's place in Door County, WI, where we would spend a lot of our summers as kids. When I smell balm-of-gilead I always flash back to that place.

Original formula Chap-Stik. It instantly takes me back to warm, sunny, carefree childhood days in Arizona. Every single time. Without fail. I suppose anyone watching me would think I was huffing Chap-Stik. And in a way, I suppose I am. Getting high off the nostalgia the smell triggers.

for sharing with us.

It's got to be Gardenias.

My mom (she had a serious green thumb) got her Gardenias
to bloom indoors!!!

That heady scent, combined with multiple lemon-scented Geraniums was our living room ambience...

a blessing to you

To my childhood…

Rain or water on hot cement… Dad hosing off the back patio before rolling out his lawn chair to listen to the ball game on a summer weekend… Miss you, Dad…

to your heart and soul

Grandpa (vet of WWI and WWII) used it to clean his deer rifle, and we would vacation back east when I was a kid right after deer season. So often times, while eating venison jerky, I would help him with his rifle cleaning and maintenance, and that solvent smell reminds me of a simpler time.

...but the old Air Force C-141's interior walls were covered with these gray blankets. They have an aroma unlike anything else I've smelled. It's not a bad smell, just distinctive.

At Seattle's Museum of Flight they have the very first Boeing 747 ever made. It's set up as it would be for flight testing. They've got all these big water barrels bolted to the floor and the only wall covering in the aircraft is the same gray blankets they used on the C-141. That same C-141 smell just...hit me.

So I get outside the plane and one of their docents wanted to know if I had any questions. "No...but you know how they say odors imprint on your brain and bring back memories when you smell them again? When I was in this aircraft it smells just like a C-141 so I started thinking of all the missions I went on in one of them."

And the smell of fresh apple pie fresh out of the oven. MUM made the Best!

And REAL PINE at Christmas time. Happy smells, all of them.

for sharing with us.

The latter brings me back to happy summer days of my childhood.

these were around "4 - "5 inch long needled ones (so pretty), and this was in summer time walking from a parking lot to the beach.

I don't remember a smell, but I loved the way they looked. TY for the memory.

I don’t know what tobacco he smoked in it, but it smelled like a cake baking in the oven. Every time Bev bakes a cake…

Not one of my favorite scents, but it definitely elicits some of my favorite memories.

They had a funny sign at the entrance that read:

Welcome to our "OOL"
Notice there's no "P" in it.
Please help keep it that way.

diarrhea. Pool is closed for a week while they dosed it with chlorine and chemicals. Yes chlorine is summer pool smell.