Do you have a taste, smell, sound (etc.) that takes you to another place & time?

I'm sitting at my desk eating lunch, and one sip of my vanilla milkshake from Burger King instantly takes me back to being 8 or 10 years old, when my favorite place to eat was Burger King, and I would have a Whopper Jr. with the fries stuck inside and a vanilla milkshake.



I know there are others, but I can't think of them right now...

damn...no one?

I have too many of them! Here's one:

The smell of strong cologne mixed with cigarette always reminds me of being a kid, riding in the car with my dad

* Chicken McNuggets - 1984 with my dad and younger brother at a McDonald's in my old neighborhood, the first time we ever ordered McNuggets.
* Jello, the smell of coal or the sound of a distant train - My maternal grandparent's home and tiny farm in a mining town.
* The mixed scent of patchouli, marijuana and Dr. Bronner's Magic (Peppermint) Soap - Undergrad
* Smell of a fresh autumn day - Walking to and from kindergarten
* ...A fresh autumn night - Trick or treating, or watching my neighbors celebrating Sukkot.
* The faint sound of old-school gospel music and/or the scent of an overpowering floral women's perfume - Getting ready for church on Sunday mornings as a kid.

Oh-! Lammastide just reminded me of one-!

I'm a die-hard Coke drinker, but when I do drink Pepsi, it takes me back to my godmother's apartment in NYC when I was a child.

Polo Sport reminds me of making out with my first boyfriend in the stairwells back in highschool...

the smell of certain chapsticks remind me of mornings, getting ready for school back when i was in middle school...

mothballs remind me of my dad.

sometimes if i haven't worn a perfume oil for a while and i wear it again, i get a wave of memories from the last time i wore it

Cotton candy.. the smell of it always brings me back to the fairs and festivals I enjoyed as a kid.

fried dough and Pearl hot dogs ...reminds me of the drive in (I miss that)

The taste of grenadine reminds me of the shaved ice guy that would pour that "red flavor" over the shaved ice.

The sound of a scraping can reminds me of when we would get wet on the city streets in the hydrants. I would scrape the lids/ends off of a steel can by rubbing it on the sidewalk in order to use it to spray water on out in an arc or "rainbow" while the water rushed out the hydrants. :urbanbaby:
[Edited 8/12/09 17:09pm]

Songs usually do this for me

The smell of pear scented lotion reminds me of a semester spent in Cannes, France.

The smell of movie theater popcorn reminds me of the worst summer job I ever had - working at a movie theater in concessions.

Drakkar and Obsession remind me of high school.

Okay, this one is weird: when I walk by the horse carriages near Central Park, the scent of manure reminds me of growing up on a farm (even though we didn't have horses). Actually anytime I smell something like livestock/animals it reminds me of that. Gross, I know. When I would complain about the smell, my dad would say, "That's the smell of money."

jone70 said:

Drakkar and the song "Head over Heels" by Tears for Fears remind me of getting ready in the morning for middle school.

A bunch.

This actually flows with why I am anti-music video.

I am glad I'm from a generation that didn't have them. Because that means that my mental images of, say, "Walk This Way" are about what I was doing, not what Steven Tyler wanted to make a short movie about.

The sound of locusts remind me of being a kid in the summer...

Lilacs reminds me of my childhood.

veronikka said:

me too.

The one smell that really takes me back is boiled tomatoes. My mom used to work at a cannery and my dad and I would go pick her up. There would be a long line of cars waiting to pick up employees. I was maybe 5 or 6. My mom would come out of work and I'd be so happy to see her.

Good times.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

That is so SWEET!!

My mom use to wear that perfume called exclamation.
It reminds me of when I was younger and she would read me stories and I would cuddle up next to her.

Jean Paul Gaultier cologne reminds me of a crazy ex.

And the theme song for Sesame Street,
1st and 2nd grade coming home after school

oh yeah..

and the smell of candy corn reminds me of one halloween when i was 9.
I went crazy on the candy and my mom said "if i catch u eating another piece of candy u wont see it again". I went in my room and stuffed a shitload of candy corn down my throat. Two minutes later, I threw everything up.

tinaz said:

Thanks love. I was a mama's boy.

The smell of a guitar case or an amplifier that smells remotely like spilled beer or stale cigarette smoke always reminds me of my older sister. Every guitar she ever gave me came with a case that smelled like both. I always think that's what musical equipment should smell like.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Oh...

I thought this was why you smelled like canned tomatoes...

ass

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Aint nothing wrong with a mama's boy!

Lemon Verbena reminds me of my grandparent's beautiful old farmhouse in Kansas we used to visit when I was a little boy. My grandparents built the house themselves and the kitchen had a stone floor that my grandma would scrub with a lemon verbena scented cleanser, and it was the most beautiful thing in the world to breathe in on a nice summer morning.


ALSO, that cream perfume stuff that came in the Avon cameo pendant necklaces...does anyone know what I'm talking about?...that smell reminds me of my mom. I think she kept one of those pendants in her desk, so a bunch of her belongings smelled like that perfume for years and years.
[Edited 8/12/09 19:32pm]

Anxiety said:

I love grandmas!! Very sweet memory! Where in kansas was this? I used to live there! Actually ina few places in kansas over the years...

tinaz said:

you had to ask...!

it was a loooong time ago, but i'm almost 100% certain it was around ottowa, kansas. it was out in the boondocks and my grandparents had a lot of farmland. their house was literally something out of a movie, with the rolling hills of grass and the clotheline in the front yard. the exterior of the house was made out of big stones, and lots of the windows were made out of old glass containers for icebox ice. it was a crazy but beautiful old farmhouse...i shudder to even think about asking my dad if he knows what happened to it when my grandparents moved to indiana.

Anxiety said:

Well i wasnt in Ottawa.. It sounds gorgeous tho! I love old farmhouses! They sure dont make things like they used to!

oh - the smell of amaretto coffee reminds me of NYC, and going to all the markets and cafes during my first trip to new york.

Anxiety said:

that reminds of me of visiting my brother in law