The smells of our youth?

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
The posts on products of yesterday and the smells of tobacco, etc. got me thinking about certain smells I remember. Maybe a certain smell reminds you of a certain person or place.

The smell mothballs reminds me of my grandmother as all her clothes smelled like bothballs. Cotton dust & honeysuckle reminds me of the countryside of my youth. I can remember how old TV's and radios smelled.
My wife remember the smell of baby dolls. She said wading pools smell like baby dolls.
 

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
I remember the smell of coffee being ground at A&P grocery. This was the only store for the longest time that had a coffee grinder. The office supply store had a unique smell. The Stock Yard, well not so unique.

The dry cleaner shop, the feed & seed store, the barber shop, the Army/Navy store, the dime store, and the Health Department all had their own smell.

Almost forgot the tobacco warehouses. A building supply store that place their creosote posts right next to the sidewalk I walked down in July. Used to burn my eyes and nose.
 

mark-7mag

Useless Billy Director of transpotation
Regular gasoline
Terpintine
Fresh yeast rolls
Red clay
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
Grandma's house in the winter. She had a couple of fireplaces she burned coal in them, and wood when we would take it to her.

Pinto beans cooking on the cast iron wood heater in our home.

My Granny's house at Christmas when everybody bought in food for lunch. Granny always made some fresh biscuits.

the diesel fumes off the farm tractor. Daddy made us ride on the scrape blade so it would cut the hard ground better, and we got a face full of that smoke
 

4HAND

Cuffem & Stuffem Moderator
Staff member
Paper mills remind me of my dad. He worked at Buckeye Paper mill for 17 years & was working there when he died at 39. I was 5 when he passed.
I remember his clothes smelled like a paper mill when he would come home from work.

Every time I go through the town where that mill is I smell it & think of him.
 

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
Grandma's house in the winter. She had a couple of fireplaces she burned coal in them, and wood when we would take it to her.

Pinto beans cooking on the cast iron wood heater in our home.

My Granny's house at Christmas when everybody bought in food for lunch. Granny always made some fresh biscuits.

the diesel fumes off the farm tractor. Daddy made us ride on the scrape blade so it would cut the hard ground better, and we got a face full of that smoke

I've heard that coal fireplaces smelled different. I don't know of anyone ever using coal. I do know that most of the Ice houses also sole coal. thus it was the coal and ice house. Maybe to give them business in the summer and winter.

Diesel fumes remind me of working in tobacco in the summers.
 

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
Paper mills remind me of my dad. He worked at Buckeye Paper mill for 17 years & was working there when he died at 39. I was 5 when he passed.
I remember his clothes smelled like a paper mill when he would come home from work.

Every time I go through the town where that mill is I smell it & think of him.

Sorry your Dad passed at such an early age. We had some in South Georgia that I remember smelling. Jesup, Brunswick, and St. Mary's comes to mind.

Perry, Florida, down in the flats fishing area!
 

4HAND

Cuffem & Stuffem Moderator
Staff member
Sorry your Dad passed at such an early age. We had some in South Georgia that I remember smelling. Jesup, Brunswick, and St. Mary's comes to mind.

Perry, Florida, down in the flats fishing area!
Yes sir!
 

georgia_home

Senior Member
Mothballs.my aunt's house ALWAYS smelled like them. Blaaahhhhh!

To this day spearmint still turns my stomach. In first grade, a kid got sick on the class room floor. The kitty litter type absorbent smelled like spearmint and sick. Especially the spearmint lifesavers!!!
 
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lonewolf247

Senior Member
The smell of the sugar mills during grinding time. The smell of fresh cut timber at the saw mill. The smell of the Community Coffee factory at the foot of the B.R. bridge. Many wild plants with memorable southern scents: Magnolia, Honeysuckle, Jessamine, Wisteria, among many others.
 

snuffy

Senior Member
The smell and weight of the homemade quilts. My aunt would pile so many on you, you couldn't move.
My uncles pipe he used to let me light for him.
Coal burning in the stove.
Wet burlap. (croker sacks) we used to put the catfish I out of our baskets. Meal cake.
 

oldguy

Senior Member
My daddy had a suede sports coat that smelled like creosote. He worked at the pole plant where they creosoted poles. Grew up liking the smell of creosote.
 

Jeff C.

Chief Grass Master
The smell of the sugar mills during grinding time. The smell of fresh cut timber at the saw mill. The smell of the Community Coffee factory at the foot of the B.R. bridge. Many wild plants with memorable southern scents: Magnolia, Honeysuckle, Jessamine, Wisteria, among many others.


Red Stick, I'm quite familiar with most of those scents. Not necessarily the Community Coffee plant, but that particular brand brewing or having a hot cup of it.

I can remember the smells of the Bayous and Marshes early in the mornin at daybreak going fishing.

NOLA for me, lonewolf.
 

normaldave

GON Weatherman
Melting tar on the gravel road, hot Summer day. Somehow, that's different than a modern, new paved road smell.
 
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