Nostalgic smells

[Neil]

My strongest boating-associated smell was a major cause of my greatest major bout of sea sickness, fishing off the coast of Brazil in a small boat. The combination of the aroma of week-old salted bonito, used as bait, ripening under the midday sun, combined with petrol and 2 stroke oil vapours (while threading hooks in a good atlantic sell on a flat-bottomed boat) caused me to bring up everything, including the contents of my small bowel...

The combination of fish and fuel will always evoke the memory..

P.s There is an article in New Scientist about the very same thing. Haven't read it yet.

 

[chinita]

There are visual triggers as well.

The sight of one skipper eating a cold bacon sandwich whilst drinking a can of warm lager at 8am whilst beating through a lumpy English Channel had a profound effect on me.......

 

[doug748]

.....no mention yet of Marcel Proust (not the mime artist that was another bloke)

I hesitate to cite Wikipedia but here goes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_memory

The most quoted example being when Marcel smells a Madeleine biscuit and experiences a sensory projection into the kitchen of his childhood.

I still cannot smell hot diesel fuel without thinking of the Knott End ferry in the Fleetwood of the 1950's. Proust would have understood.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

The smell of salty dampness mixed with matches and gas when lighting the stove always reminds me of childhood sailing holidays, with a barely detectable but ever-present smell of GRP in the background.

I'm completely with you on this one... on Phoenix's delivery, we used matches to light the cooker, and mixed with the vaguely damp smell, it really reminded me of sailing as a child..... quite a nice experience really!

 

[DanTribe]

I'm completely with you on this one... on Phoenix's delivery, we used matches to light the cooker, and mixed with the vaguely damp smell, it really reminded me of sailing as a child..... quite a nice experience really!

The smell of meths and matches takes me back to camping holidays and the Primus being lit. Time for bacon!

 

[jhr]

My daughter & I visited Gypsy Moth IV yesterday. Her first reaction was " it smells like a proper yacht, not like the plastic ones". By that I suppose she meant diesel, parafin, & mildew.

... and possibly varnish, as well?

 

[prv]

There are visual triggers as well.

Not sure I have any visual triggers, but the sound of a long zip being opened or closed takes me straight back to camping holidays in the rain in my parents' trailer-tent. And in fact also brings with it the texture of the floor covering (like a 10-foot-square carpet tile) that they put down on top of the groundsheet in the awning and always seemed to get dry grass caught in it.

One smell "trigger" I have is the smell of military oil on machinery (not sure why this is different from civilian oil but it seems to be). My dad was an RAF engineer, and when we were little we would sometimes get to go inside the helicopters that were in for repair in his hangar. On Saturday in Cherbourg I visited the Redoutable (French nuclear submarine at the maritime museum) and the smell in the engine compartment took me straight back to RAF Odiham in the mid 80s.

Pete