Does the Smell of Somethings Evoke Nostalgia?
By timetravel
@timetravel (1425)
United States
March 30, 2012 11:22am CST
I've noticed the older I get (I will be 56 this May!) the more attuned I am to the smell of some things. The other day, while I was still not feeling so well, I opened the front door. It was a damp day, and yet not too warm and not too cold. The air smelled fresh, like the fresh rain - and you could see the spring flowers blooming on the neighbor's lawns. The smell of the newly fallen rain and new flowers hit me and brought me back to my teen years when life felt fresh and new on a day like that. It was good, in a way, inspiring actually, yet at the same time, it evoked a certain nostalgia. Not that my teen years were so great - I guess the nostalgia was for those moments of hope, and inspiration, that were few and far between during those years. It tells me life is not over, there is still much to do and much to discover. And to take in all that I can that is natural and beautiful in the meantime.
What do you think?
3 people like this
6 responses
@rogue13xmen13 (14402)
• United States
31 Mar 12
Yes, whenever I smell certain things, I am taken back to the first time I smelled it or the happy feeling that I got from it.
@rogue13xmen13 (14402)
• United States
31 Mar 12
Marvel Comics' "Daredevil", "Spider-Man", and "Wolverine". 'Nuff said!
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
31 Mar 12
You know, I think many people don't realize just how strong of a sense smell is. I had some friends who were blind - this was around thirty five or so years ago - and smell was of utmost importance to them. The sense was very enhanced, probably to compensate for lack of sight.
1 person likes this
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
30 Mar 12
The smell of freshly-cut grass always reminds me of when I was a child. Father would mow the laws at home every week-end.
The smell of freshly-made cakes reminds me too of when I was younger and Mother was having a baking day. Somehow there is never the same smell when I do any baking.
Every springtime I see renewed hope, though this year is different. The flowers are just coming into bloom and the birds are chirping, The clocks have changed so that the days are longer but... there is something about this spring which is different from other years. Maybe it is the economic crisis or maybe it is my grandson who this year will be out and about now that he has turned two. Maybe it is an awareness that there are fewer springs on the horizon now, even though I am opnly three years older than you 
1 person likes this
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
1 Apr 12
Yes, sadness nostalgia just about sums that up.
I hope that you will eventually have granchildren too. Although nowadays our children don't seem to put children at the top of their priories but they will get there too, you'll see - and then you will be busy! 
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
30 Mar 12
That sounds like the sadness nostalgia brings with it - while it brings a certain happiness in our remembrances of times past, it also reminds us they are times past.
I wonder if I will get a grandchild in my lifetime! I have two stepgrandchildren, but my youngest is just 19 and he's not planning on marriage until he's closer to 30. My daughter who is almost 27 talks of having a child someday, but that could be another ten years from now!
1 person likes this
@yanzalong (18987)
• Indonesia
31 Mar 12
Not only the smell but the look. When I came to a shop I remembered it was just like the one i saw else where but was sure where it was.
1 person likes this
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
31 Mar 12
Strange how that happens, isn't it? Almost like a sense of deja-vu, only a place you really remembered?
@RitterSport (2451)
• Lippstadt, Germany
8 Apr 12
hi dear timetravel, for me it would be smelling potato pancakes. This will immediately let me think of my beloved Grandma who lived with us from the time I was 4 to the time I was 25. She loved potato pancakes for Friday when we Catholics didnt eat meat back then and made the best ones in the world.
@trinkabelle (432)
•
30 Mar 12
talking of smells and memories, i went to a friends house today and i used the bathroom, then washed my hands, to be honest i had no idea that this soap still existed, (wrights coal tar soap) when we were kids my nanna used to have this all the time, she even used to wash our clothes with it and that smell is very strong, after washing my hands with this soap today it brought all them memories of when we lived with nanna and that smell triggered so many lovely memories, it took me back to when i was 3, such beautiful memories of her home, her love, her kindness and everything about her was just divine, i felt pretty sad really because she is no longer with us, but i still have that smell on my hands and i am still getting little flashbacks of my childhood days at my nanna's
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
30 Mar 12
I love it when I find something like that from my younger days! You know, it's strange, after moving to the city for years I never heard the sound of the ice cream truck until we moved in to the neighborhood we now live in - we moved here last year - and the ice cream truck comes by here starting in the spring - and just the sound of it brings back all sorts of memories...
A lot of things used back in my childhood days, while still here, have been so reformulated that the smell is different - like some laundry detergents and such. It's nice when there is something that hasn't changed!
1 person likes this
@trinkabelle (432)
•
30 Mar 12
there are also detergents that i still buy, even when i was at home, there was a few things that they still sell in the shops now, i remember my mum using oil of Ulay, the name has been changed to Olay now and there are different varieties of it, but the original is what i still buy now but i have to order it because it's not in the shops any more, this also reminds me of home, i only use a little bit every day and i have done since i was 16 and i have never had bad skin in my entire life, i am 48 now and i don't have wrinkles yet, but that smell is another trigger, even oranges, nan's house used to smell of Oranges, even though she hardly ever bought them
@timetravel (1425)
• United States
30 Mar 12
Did her house smell like oranges because she used an orange based cleaner? Some of them have been around for ages! My mother never used oil of olay but I remember commercials for it while growing up.
She used powdered Tide detergent during my whole childhood - and I am highly allergic today to any powdered detergent ...lol.
One thing I miss are milk deliveries straight to the door. The "milkman" brought more than milk -there were danishes at times, or cinnamon buns, and orange juice and raisin bread and eggs...
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
11 Sep 15
I think smells and aromas,play a significant part in our memories and feelings of nostalgia.
