Thread: Odd smells you like...

Originally Posted by AirColorado

- Freshly stacked hay bales,
- that pungent mix of saltwater and fish that you get around most salt water harbors,
- freshly steamed crabs in a Maryland crab shack (Old Bay and mustard),
- Freshly exposed soil (as in the forest after you move a rock)
- The first sniff of water vapor in the air after coming out of the desert
- a moderately stale and musty basement
- Jet engine exhaust (spent JP4)
- the scent of a woman (au natural)
- A scuba equipment storage room in ANY tropical location
- Freshly cut lumber

I've left some number 8's because they were indistinguishable in the dark from number 2.

Originally Posted by icedog

I've left some number 8's because they were indistinguishable in the dark from number 2.

That is...FUNNY!

Nitromethane!!

Freshly sharpened pencils

Ink (for fountain pens, but also Talens Ecoline we used at kindergarten, and Japanese rubbing ink)

Certain old cheap pocket books (the ones that smell sweet and woody)

The gases that bubble up when one pokes in the mud bottom of an old pond

Cow and horse sheds (not just the manure, I mean the warm mixture of the smells of cattle, mice, hay, wood, leather, ...)

Ground glass (reminiscent of menthol)

Old workshops (woods, waxes, paint) and engineering works (oils, gasoline, steel)

The damp draught in some basements, abandoned castles and bunkers

Early LP records

The smell of pine needles and formic acid around red wood ant nests in the sun

The smell of the girlfriend's skin after it's been kissed by the sun.

It would be the smell of diesel in a light rain as the sun rises because you knew you survived another night. The generators that ran the perimeter lights were diesel and we had very few attacks during the day.
I still get weird flashbacks when I smell diesel in damp weather especially early morning.

Originally Posted by mbrennan

It is interesting how many like the very smells that others find offensive, and how many of us enjoy the same smells. Here's mine:
The smell of horses and cattle
Vegetable tanned leather (especially when it's wet)
Fresh rain, even better after a long dry spell
Gunpowder after doing its job
Fresh cut and curing hay
Hot bread fresh out of the oven
The sometimes very pungent smell of a working saddle/tack shed

Thanks to you all and thanks for this thread as a very interesting sidelight.

Thanks mate, I will only add, the first fire in the stove for the Winter

Cheers

Gordon

Not a smell that is my favourite, but definately a nostalgic one:

Kerosene Stove/heater

When I first came to Japan (Nagoya) in 1997 it was one of my first memories. Now everytime I smell it it brings me back and I think man I love living here.

I also love the smell of emptying a backpack after a week long hike. A melange of sweat, woodsmoke, forest and whatever else.

I also love the smell of grease stained hands after a day under the hood of you car, working on the motor.

I read that research has proven the strongest memory link of the five senses is the olfactory.