Smells and memorys...

[Spacemanchuck]

The since of smell is a powerful thing, I'm always catching a wiff of something and I get a little flash back of a time and place. What's some of yalls most memory inducing sents?

A big one for me is smelling the air here in downtown Seattle, it imediatly brings back memorys of traveling in Europe, Amsterdam and the concept art workshop.

Another is when I smell this certain perfume, I have no clue what it is, it's very flowery and fruity and really not all too plesant. But when mixed with the smell of cigarette smoke it reminds me of my first kiss.

Do share.

[Moogle]

The since of smell is a powerful thing, I'm always catching a wiff of something and I get a little flash back of a time and place. What's some of yalls most memory inducing sents?

A big one for me is smelling the air here in downtown Seattle, it imediatly brings back memorys of traveling in Europe, Amsterdam and the concept art workshop.

Another is when I smell this certain perfume, I have no clue what it is, it's very flowery and fruity and really not all too plesant. But when mixed with the smell of cigarette smoke it reminds me of my first kiss.

Do share.

Yes, my basement has many different smells depending on the day.
Same with my middle floor.

I sometimes go: This smells like a home depot day
or: Last time it smelled like this, I was playing Starcraft. Starcraft day!
Smells like a warcraft day
Smells like a go downtown day.

:P odd. Lighting and weather also have to do with it .

[lefran]

im always convinced that certain places smell like florida , im like, it smells like america!! and i get strange looks, but yeah theres always certain things that trigger it hehe

[Elwell]

How Proustian.

[Ilaekae]

When I was a kid, they still had 1000s of mechanical pinball machines (1950s). When they wore out, they'd simply scrap them them in an open junkyard under a bridge near my home, along with auto parts and old radios and electrical components from the steel mills. When rain collected in them, it would soak into the wax-impregnated insulation, and there would be a very weak smell that was kind of a cross between stale urin and an overheated light-bulb throughout the junkyard.

This smell still pops up once in a great while after a light rain and it instantly takes me back to those days, when my gang and I would sneak into the yards and strip out the components and steel balls and stuff to play with. Sometimes, the memory is so strong, I can hear AND smell the 200 or so people who would gather on the loading docks by the tracks and play pinochle and "66" for hours at a time, or try to "make out" with the girls in the gang. The memory is so strong, I can "see" the hairstyles, clothing and even the scars we had, and recognize their voices as if they speaking right behind me today.

(It makes me a bit sad because a 16-oz lemonade and a full sheet of sicilian pizza (16 cuts) was $1.25 then, and that's what we survived on, one tray each... :\ )

[Number_6]

How Proustian.

Dammit, I wanted to comment on that!

[CGMonkey]

I can totally relate to what you're saying.. smells to me are very important. it kinda goes hand in hand if you're a very nostalgic person I guess.

Lately i've been having really cool scenarios where I'm in the middle of a flashback and instead of the smell that triggers the memory, the memory triggers a very, very fine scent of the smell :P

[Kian]

Mines quite sad. Lynx Africa. Immediatley transports me back to 1998 when I was just starting out in Music and 3D. I learnt so much that summer, its still an inspirational time for me now. Listening to "Sasha - Be as one" & "Binary Finary - 1998". Yeah, scents are really powerful.
And Fran I have the exact same thing with Florida!

[peterhurman]

the smell of freshly cut grass reminds me of playing football as a kid. the smell of southern comfort reminds me of being sick.

[Cthogua]

Hehehe..I live in Florida and I don't think it smells that great :P

I was reading, and the thing about smells is, our olfactory system is connected not only to the cortex, but to the limbic system, which regulates emotions, memories, and behavior and is generally considered a more primative part of the brain. Connections between smells and some memories may be more physical than you might think as well. Appearantly the physical connections, the axons of the nerves, don't go away, even though the epithelial nerve cells in our noses only live about 60 days. Their replacements grow into the same connections established when the memory was made. Thus a 3 day old epithelial nerve cell can recall a 20 year old memory.

I love neuro-psychology, but really only know what curious reading and a few educated friends have told me...So if I'm wrong about some of this and someone knows...let me know!

[egerie]

A mix of putrifying oak leaves and grass feels like there's a time teleport that grabs me by the head and flings me 20 years earlyer at a certain point of my life. It's like all the synapses get supercharged and I'm in the alps in autumn again. Quite the experience.

Spacemanchuck, I had a somewhat similar experience with an unidentified perfume too... But, ummm, in different circumstances ;) Let's just say it was an unforgetable partner, ah!