Warning - Goofy Question - Smells

[easyaces]

Smells of the old Chicago stock yards on hot summer nights back in the mid to late 60's. They were on the south side, and I lived on the north side. When the wind was from the south the smell would just hang on the breeze!

[selector]

I am pleased to read that so many of you have good associations with the whiff of creosote.  I understand Space Mouse's aversion...it must have been like the association you make the first time you get sick with alcohol...whatever you drank ain't gettin' past your lips again!

(For me it's vodka and orange juice...or was it Tang...

No one has mentioned steamy porridge.  Or how about your Mom's favourite perfume?  Freshly baked bread is usually right up there, too.

Another I forgot, a very powerful one for those of us who have lived in frozen climes during the winter, is that first whiff of thawing soil....mmmmmmmmmmm.

[SteamFreak]

This is a good thread. For me it would be the stuff (liquid vinyl?) from the Creepy People that my older brothers had...ya know the one with the metal molds. I don't know what the stuff was (some kind of carcongin no doubt) but every once in a while I'll catch a wiff of it from something and it brings me right back to that time.

J.P. 

Thanks for bringing back that memory! My sister had the Thingmaker when we were kids, and the smell of the Plastigoop was incredible. I remember it ate through the styrofoam box if any leaked out of the bottles, so how dangerous could it be? The dangerous part was the stove; you could've fried eggs on it. We used to melt plastic army men instead, and just about anything else we could think of. We never burned ourselves, though.

They take everything good off the market, like when the took the cyclamate sweetener out of Kool-Aid in the 60's. It hasn't tasted like Kool-Aid since. You'd probably have to drown in it before you'd get a tumor.

[tstage]

Thanks for bringing back that memory! My sister had the Thingmaker when we were kids, and the smell of the Plastigoop was incredible...The dangerous part was the stove; you could've fried eggs on it. We used to melt plastic army men instead, and just about anything else we could think of. We never burned ourselves, though.

Boy!  Those were the days, huh?  Heating up mold makers...coming up with all sorts of hideous creations "NOT found in the recipe book".  It was like being in Frankenstein's laboratory!  (You're right, Nelson.  We never burned ourselves either.)

Anyone chow down on "Incredible Eatables"?  How 'bout the water rockets that you were only supposed to pump, maybe 20 times.  (...51...52...53...54...)

Man, kids just don't know what they're missin' these days!  How did we ever survive without video games?...

[Conrail5]

Cedar shavings or Pine Sol - Reminds me of the stuff the janitor threw on top of the puke in the first grade

Moth balls - reminds me of having to put up the canvass awnings each year in the spring

Nilla wafers - reminds me of my school bus ride to school every morning and afternoon we would pass by the Nabisco plant on Roosevelt Blvd in Northeast Philly.

Creosote - Reminds me of my walks to high school everyday, I walked the Septa lines to the old Conrail lines right to Front & Duncannon

Ginkos - Reminds me of summers at my grandparents. Man when the ginkos started falling in the street and the cars smashed them, then the summer sun would bake them   

Old Spice - Dad wore it, God I miss him !

[jep1267]

Thanks for bringing back that memory! My sister had the Thingmaker when we were kids, and the smell of the Plastigoop was incredible. 

SteamFreak,

I see you are from Joisey too, maybe it was a NJ thing

That's right it was called Thingmaker, They came out with an imposter in the late 70s or early 80s and that one was called Creepy People. It used a light bulb to heat the goop in stead of heating the mould, The problem was the light bulb didn't heat the stuff enough to make it a liquid...piece of junk. The original Thingmaker goop ate through the styrofoam? LOL I knew that stuff was a carcinogen.

 

[SteamFreak]

That's right it was called Thingmaker, They came out with an imposter in the late 70s or early 80s and that one was called Creepy People. It used a light bulb to heat the goop in stead of heating the mould, The problem was the light bulb didn't heat the stuff enough to make it a liquid...piece of junk. The original Thingmaker goop ate through the styrofoam? LOL I knew that stuff was a carcinogen.

Yep, it ate huge holes in the packaging. It looked like the acid scene from "Alien."

And Tom, this is completely OT, but I remember those pump rockets. I never had one, but friends in the neighborhood did. Our neighbor's dad was really cool, and he pumped one up so much I don't think it ever came down!

[PASMITH]

The smell ( And sound ) of coal fired steam on the double track West Shore Division of the NYC blasting past the Harrington Park NJ RR depot where I grew up in the forties. The smell of piles of maple leaves burning in front of all the houses in town in the fall. And ( as mentioned above), the smell of ozone coming from my Lionel trains.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[Pruitt]

When something smells like the basement of my home in Cheyenne, WY, when I was in high school (1971-1974), it immediately brings back many great memories of hours spent working on model trains there. Probably was one of the best times of my life - too young to be worried about making a living yet, but old enough to have developed some modeling skills.

Certain music also brings that back - almost as strongly as the smells.

[Metro Red Line]

In terms of Model Railroading, one smell that never fails to spark up nostalgia is the smell of fresh cork roadbed...I bought a few pieces of N roadbed for my new layout and it made me feel like I'm 10 years old again and my dad and I just came back from the LHS (literally local, just 2 miles away) and bought a bunch of cork roadbed for my first permanent HO layout.

[Anonymous]

Gear oil. It reminds me of going to Kennywood (a pittsburgh amusement park). When I was a kid this meant it was getting close to summer vacation from school as they would sell tickets toward the middle of May.

 

 

[loathar]

Thanks for bringing back that memory! My sister had the Thingmaker when we were kids, and the smell of the Plastigoop was incredible...The dangerous part was the stove; you could've fried eggs on it. We used to melt plastic army men instead, and just about anything else we could think of. We never burned ourselves, though.

Boy!  Those were the days, huh?  Heating up mold makers...coming up with all sorts of hideous creations "NOT found in the recipe book".  It was like being in Frankenstein's laboratory!  (You're right, Nelson.  We never burned ourselves either.)

Anyone chow down on "Incredible Eatables"?  How 'bout the water rockets that you were only supposed to pump, maybe 20 times.  (...51...52...53...54...)

Man, kids just don't know what they're missin' these days!  How did we ever survive without video games?...

And then the smell of the glue from unsuccessfully trying to fix the crack in the broken rocket.

Magic markers from grade school before they where deemed toxic.

[selector]

Aaah yes, the magic markers.  How could I have forgotten...

[Raymond Leggs]

the smell of my 70's early 90's stereo equipment. (smells like burning lint and hot electronics components)

[Anonymous]

Selector starting an off topic thread???

Creosote always reminds me of railroads, and diesel exhaust does as well. Neither one is exactly a "nice" smell, but they do bring back memories. 

[SteamFreak]

This thread is smelling a little musty...

[lvanhen]

Sawdust!!  From high school shop classes!!  After college I went back to working as a carpenter (that's the way I paid for college)!!   I made more money than I would as a civil engineer - retired at 55 - went back to work out of boredom - now 65 & retired again!!  Sawdust (to keep this on a rr theme) allowed me to buy the many locos, cars, buildings, etc that will start to shape up in the next year when I move to my retirement home.

[BATMAN]

My "Lone Star Treble O" trains running for hours in my bedroom in the early "60s". Put your nose up to the layout and you could sure smell those Loco's as they went by. A similar smell coming from the Strombecker road race set. I would jam something in the controller sometimes so I could watch them go round and round the track while I was doing something else. Ah yes the water rocket. We pumped my friends up to such a pressure that the trigger would not release. Eventually after dancing around and pulling with all his might BINGO! The craft departed the launcher with beautiful grace. The trajectory follow a perfect arc for some 150' going through the 10' plate glass livingroom window of his own house across the street. The rocket was fine.

B

[Grampys Trains]

Hi all:  The smell of metal tinsel as my Lionel 0-6-0 ran over it.

[Arjay1969]

Freshly cut plywood reminds me of when my dad and I put together my first HO scale layout.

 

And certain pipe tobaccos remind me of my grandfather, who used to rush outside with me to watch the trains across the street from their house when I was a little kid. 

[cordon]

Great idea, Selector.  Thank you.

I'd have to go with:

All of the above, except for steel mill and brewery.  Never had the pleasure of smelling either.  I'd like to add:

Cap guns, after firing

Smokeless powder, after firing

The coal stove in middle of the old RR station waiting rooms in the winter

Old, big machinery that hadn't been used for years, with exposed greasy gears

Inside of a tube radio when it's hot 

 

 

[HarryHotspur]

The smell of freshly cut grass and freshly drug dirt on a baseball field.

 

[howmus]

Most all the smells of a dairy farm:

Cow Manure

Freshly baled hay

Yep!  Creosote.

The exhaust of old tractors with a leaky head gasket. (That smell came back to me on a Boy Scout trip with a rented van several years ago.  Kept smelling it and couldn't place it.  Finally figured it out when the thing ran out of water and overheated big time.......) 

Sunday Chicken roasting in the oven.

Molasses  being mixed with hot water in the milkhouse before being poured on hay for the cows.......

[Geared Steam]

Oh man

Creosote- Railroad tracks, 8 year old foamer on my spider bike, waiting beside the GN/BN mainline for a train. Also the bridge down by the mill that I fished off of.

Freshly cut Pine trees-Living by a lumber mill that was twice the size of the town, this scent filled the valley.

Someone else mentioned canvas and a fire- me too, Boy Scouts :)

Fresh baked bread-mom :)

Gunpowder smell on a cold morning- hunting with dad and grandpa

Thanks Crandell

[lvanhen]

NAPALM - SMELLS LIKE VICTORY!!  NAM 65-66

[steamage]

Steam Cylinder Oil as used in internal steam engine lubrication.

[PMeyer]

Hooker Chemical Corp and ...women.

[PMeyer]

NAPALM - SMELLS LIKE VICTORY!!  NAM 65-66

Some day this war's gonna end...

[Medina1128]

My dad was a fighter pilot, and I always knew he was home when I smelled the leather from his flight boots and jet fuel.

[0-6-0]

Hello for me it is an oil refinery from Toledo grandparents lived down wind from one, machine shop oil dad was tool die man for 27 years when he came home from work he smelled like his shop. Iodine the red/orange stuff mom put on all my road rash. Have a nice day Frank