Hyperspace memories

[MKG]

Via the magic of a Star-Trek-like matter transference process, I've just sampled a genuine Andy Hamilton wine. It's good, but that's beside the point - which is that it was absolutely redolent (for those of a non-OED bent, that is "reminded me in a big way" ) of an earlier event. In fact, it eventually, after much memory searching, took me back to the North Yorkshire Moors in the summer of 1970 and a mad episode concerning the gentry of those there parts, an argument over who was going to have us for dinner (and yes, I really began to wonder what that meant), following the tail lights of an apparently clapped out old car across the moors (can't remember what it was apart from the fact it was black) which could actually do a Grand Prix with ease, and eventually eating sausage goulash with 18th-century inlaid cutlery at a house I have no chance of ever finding again whilst being prodded by our host's 10-year old son to read the libretto of the Mozart opera which happened to be blaring out from the hi-fi (look it up if you're too young).

You know - one of those events which never leaves you. One which might leave your immediate memory, but once prodded ...

It's a plum wine, which sounds innocuous enough, but it's the character of the wine which did the memory jerking. So I wondered - has anyone else got one of those? Not necessarily plum, of course, but a wine taste which knocks your head into an inescapable reliving of old events.

The fact that I'm asking this is a testament to the efficacy of the Hamilton vintage

Mike

[battybird]

Not exactly a hamilton vintage, but anything with an aroma of peaches instantly makes me feel anxious...I was 200 miles away from home on a course and developed acute appendicitis at the grand old age of 10yrs! Had some pretty peach talc (avon!!) and bath stuff which I must have used a lot when I was in hospital. My only visitor for several days was the hospital chaplain as my mum was busy with younger siblings and had no car. Even peach schnapps makes me go all unnecessary!

[MKG]

I hadn't thought about it quite like that, Battybird - but you're right. Abiding memories associated with tastes or smells. Now that you mention it, I have a few of those myself - but I'm sticking with the more pleasant ones, if you don't mind.

Mike

[MKG]

Well, I see this thread struck a chord with everyone

Looks like me and thee are the only sane ones around here, Battybird

Mike

[boboff]

Ok, you asked.

The smell from my newly commissioned Composting Toilet, reminds me of stays with my Grandparents, and the Outhouse they had, which had a filament light bulb which if you stared at would leave the impression on your eyes for ages, and a rusty tin of Glade Air freshener which was at least 20 years old, and had a design from a different era, there were no street lights, and you had to take a torch when you went out to the car to go home. They had a meal at midday, and a snack at Tea time, and cheese and crackers with Cocoa for supper. We could go for walks blackberrying, and Gran used to make See Saws from the old railway sleepers, you always got stung with stinging nettles and went home smelling of calomine lotion. We would often go logging, and have breaks with Tea from a Thermos, and cakes and dried up scones and burnt sponges, meat patties and slices of quiche and Top and bottom pie, all produced from recyled paper bags and washed out margerine tubs.

Basically the smell of shit reminds me of a great early "ish" lifestyle which I would like to give my kids now!

Ok, so you guys like Plums & Peaches, real men prefer poo!

Oh I just thought of something else, that damp smell you get when clothes have been left damp for a while, like old tramps, always reminds me of having to deliver 86 really heavy evening newspapers around a very hilly area of St Judes in Plymouth, in the rain, trying to run, as I had a detention, and if I did the round quickly and forged the permission slip I could still get home and no one would know until the end of term report card came home, so it's that feeling of being tired, rushing, guilt, trepadation, the rub of oil skin trousers wooshing between your thighs, the drips from the hood trickling down you neck when you moved the strap of the bright orange bags to stop it carving a groove in your shoulder. The misty rain falling in over the roofs of the council houses, the smell of coal smoke rising up from within, and the lime leaves mounding in the side of the road, causing the running rain to spray out and miss the drains, the rainbows in the road where oil had spilt, and the slow halogen flicker as the Street Lamps signalled the coming of night...... It really did feel like running around in a Lowrey!

[Millymollymandy]

Lots of smells and tastes (notably tropical fruit and veg) take me back to my childhood; even things that I think I don't remember from the name come back to me as a taste/smell that I knew really well.

Smelling a particular rose in my garden reminds me of my grandmother every time I sniff it, which I do regularly.

[Hernaic Tom]

The scent of the flowers of a variety of Astilbe caled Europa thrusts me back immediately to some undefinable moment of my childhood for some reason... The same goes for certain Cherry blossoms.

I think my primary school must have grown these outside my classroom. So these plants, for me, smell just like nostalgia!!

[Green Aura]

Gold Block tobacco - reminds me of my Dad. No other pipe tobacco smelled like it (or at least not those brands smoked by anyone I knew).

Do they still make it? Haven't seen a pipe in 10 years or more!

[MKG]

Ogden Gold Block - yes, it's still around. It's a blend of Golden Virginia (the stuff a lot of us are growing at the moment) and Burley tobaccos, with a secret (i.e. probably highly carcinogenic) sweetener. But yes, once smelled, never forgotten.

Mike

[scrap]

Ok,here's my magic smell... *Hey, don't run guys?*

Well,it's pine resin.
Back in '03 me and the missus got to use my brothers holiday cabin in the Belgian Ardennes.
It was located on the top of a big hill overlooking the minute village called Dohan, a couple of miles from the better known city of Boullion.

Loggers had left a pile of large pine logs by the road next to the cabin.
I used to sit there often,enjoying the sunshine,reading a book or just watching the tiny lizards that ran over the bark,chasing after fly's and grasshoppers.

The smell of warm pine resin still takes me back to that spot.
Warm happy memory.

The cabin was sold in '06,since it was burglared on a regular basis.
My brother decided to sell it,and the next owner probably burned it down intentionally to claim insurance money.

[Thomzo]

Can't think of a nice one at the moment but there is a nasty one. I can't abide the smell of leather seats in a new car. It really makes me sick as it reminds me of the time during my biology A level when we had to dissect a dog-fish. It was the most revolting experience and the fish was preserved in formaldehyde so the smell was gross. It really put me off any career in science.

Zoe

[baldybloke]

One for any petrolheads out there. The smell of Castrol R, the vegetable based racing oil brings back fond memories. As for bad smells, chicken poo is certainly on my list.

[MKG]

One for any petrolheads out there. The smell of Castrol R, the vegetable based racing oil brings back fond memories. As for bad smells, chicken poo is certainly on my list.

No, no, no, no - you have to tell us the story. Fond memories of what, exactly, Baldybloke?

Mike

EDIT: Should I have asked, I wonder?

[baldybloke]

Ok, if you insist.

The wafting of Castrol R from vintage motorcycles at various race meetings, sprints and hillclimbs when I was a keen young motorcyclist.
The smell of chicken poo from a bike rally near Wantage. The farmer thought it a good idea to spray the field with it hoping it would rain before the rally. Guess what, it didn't, and my tent smelled of the stuff for months.