Childhood smells

[Oma]

We were talking to GS about this,
There are smells and things that his generation will never get to experience or rarely get too,

Like fresh window putty,
A very distinct smell,

Even now I can still remember the smell.

Coal fires ,
I know some people still have them but I think a lot wouldn't recognise the smell now.

Bees wax ,
I had polished my coffee table with it the other day and when GS came in he said what's that smell,
I told him and he said it doesn't smell like honey,
Well no it won't it's another by-product of bees ,

What else can you think of that the younger generation wouldn't recognise?

[Daisy]

Oma, that's an interesting question and it's set me thinking.

One that comes to mind immediately is the smell of wet washing being dried round the open fire on a rainy day. I hated it. I agree about the smell of coal fires. Most people wouldn't recognise it these days.

I loved the smell of fresh putty.

The smell of the big coke fired stoves in our junior school classrooms.

The smell of beef being roasted on a grid, with the juices dropping into the Yorkshire pudding below it.

A department store in our main shopping centre which to me always smelled like wax crayons.

I'm sure I'll remember more ...

[Oma]

We had gas lamps on the ceilings of our classes when I was in infants and juniors,
I can still smell the gas and remember the pop when the caretaker lit them😁

Wet woolen gloves and socks on the classroom radiators in the winter is another smell,

[Lizzie48]

My first few years were spent living close, and playing in a joiners yard, the smell of freshly sawn wood takes me back. Then we lived on the main road out of Hull, Hull was at the time a huge fishing port, the lorries would go through our village leaving the wet trail of fresh fish, usually in the mornings. If it rained it was soon rinsed away, in the summer months it would linger.

The smell of the steam trains close to our home, the smell of tar from the road men, oh, and the one man on his steam roller!!!

[Daisy]

Lizzie, I remember visiting Hull once when I was about 13 or 14, and the thing that struck me was the slight smell of fish in the air everywhere. It wasn't unpleasant, and to me it just meant the sea was close by.

Does anyone else remember the smell of cabbage at school dinners?

Also the smell in the physics and chemistry labs at school?

[Lizzie48]

Daisy, that is so true! I was reading that the buildings of the old fish docks are still derelict after all these years. The smell of the fish is still noticeable!

[Gemini]

I loved the smell of putty too.

Eww Daisy, yes some horrible smells from the science labs!

The smell in the wind from the sugar beet factory, in my childhood and early adulthood was a gorgeous one. To me at least, some people found it sickly.

[Oma]

Yes school cabbage that had been boiled within an inch of it's life,

The road tar men with the big tar boilers,
I remember my mother taking my sister who had whooping cough along to take in the smell of the tar,
It was believed in them days it helped chests coughs and colds etc.

Windolene was another and Duraglit polish wadding ,

My mother would go mad at us for opening the tin of Duraglit to smell it ,
She said it dried up if we didn't put the lid back on tightly,
More worried about that than us sniffing chemicals 🤣

[Daisy]

Lizzie, the loss of the fishing industry must have been really bad for Hull.

Gem, you've reminded me of another smell. Our grammar school was on top of a hill. At the bottom of the hill, a couple of miles away I think, were two huge commercial bakeries - a Mother's Pride and a Sunblest. We could smell the bread baking when we were out on the hockey fields. It made hockey almost tolerable, but not quite!

Oma, I didn't like the smell of Duraglit. Nobody worried about chemicals in those days, did they.

[Gemini]

This isnt a childhood smell but one from my 20s and early 30's

We lived within spitting distance of Rowntree's/Nestle factory.

Chocolate and mint and fruity scents were the most common smells but it varied. Most of the time it was wonderful. During my second pregnancy, the only we we lived on that house for, it made me feel awful! I dreaded opening the door every day.

[Daisy]

Gem, that must have been disappointing to find the smell of chocolate and sweets so off putting.

[Gemini]

Daisy, we passed a fish and chip shop most days when we lived there. I love fish and chips, but that was another smell which turned my stomach during pregnancy!

[Sum1Ls]

All of those! And we still have a real fire but smokeless fuel doesn’t really smell the same. I remember the smell of Shipstones brewery. - and the manure from the big cart horses that used to pull the drays with the barrels on them.
And the mothballs when the old coats were brought out ready for winter.

[Gemini]

Oh yes Sum1, I quite liked that weird mothball smell!

[Daisy]

Memories of mothballs. My mother never used them as she hated the smell, and I'm afraid I agreed with her. But one of my aunts was an avid user and I can remember everything upstairs in their house smelled of mothballs, even towels in the bathroom.

A glamorous friend of my Mum's loved Coussons Blue Hyacinth toiletries - bath cubes, soap, talc etc, and it was always a delight to go into her bathroom!