Memories from Smells

[ANC]

After a discussion with Tom Servo I began thinking of how amazing the link between smells and memories is. We've all been there when you get a waft of something (good, bad, or indifferent) and a flood of memories comes rushing through. I just find it really amazing.

The strange thing with me is, the opposite happens to me as well. Like if a thought from the past crosses my mind or something, I usually get like an ambient sense of smell about it. I don't know I just find it weird. I'm curious if this happens to anyone else?

Just a few examples:

Dial Liquid Soap - reminds me of my old office job

Peach Body Lotion - any time I smell this in a mall or if some girl uses it, it reminds me of Delilah's Den in Jersey

Dissident by Pearl Jam - for some reason when I hear this song I get the smell of Subway bread in my head.

Damn, as I type this I really think I'm a lot stranger then I previously thought.

[FUNKMAN]

one time about 30 years ago i was hanging on the stoop with a friend and a scrawny thin stray dog walked by and stopped about 10 ft from us to take a dump right in the middle of the sidewalk. right after he dumped he turned and gave us that " yeah so " look and went on his way.

it took about 5 seconds for the steam off that shit to hit our noses and I gotta tell ya it was the worse shit i ever smelled in my life

[jonyrotn]

Everytime I smell flowers, I get a vivid image of my father in his casket from 29 years ago..Freaks me out but I can't shake it..

[jonyrotn]

one time about 30 years ago i was hanging on the stoop with a friend and a scrawny thin stray dog walked by and stopped about 10 ft from us to take a dump right in the middle of the sidewalk. right after he dumped he turned and gave us that " yeah so " look and went on his way.

it took about 5 seconds for the steam off that shit to hit our noses and I gotta tell ya it was the worse shit i ever smelled in my life
Youv'e never smelled a crackheads shit..One time as a rookie cop, I was on a foot post on W140 st. between Lenox ave and 7 ave.. It was 1991 so the city was still war torn, Washington Hieghts was burning to the ground and there was crack cocaine as for as the eye could see..
I observed a woman, who was clearly a crackhead pick up a small black plastic bag, the kind you get from the corner store when you buy a bag of Bon Ton chips and a blue flavored twenty five cent drink, from next to the stoop of a known drug location..There was nobody else around so I immediately assumed it was the dealers stash, and this basehead was stealing it..Well, there was so no way I was gonna let this chick walk right by me with bag full of crack..So I stopped her, demanded she hand over the bag and put her hands on the car...Unfortunately, she comlpied..She handed me the bag and it wieghed about 2 pounds...I was golden..I was gonna have an A-1 felony collar as my first arrest, YESSS....Quickly, I whipped out my cuffs and had her prone on the ground and handcuffed with my boot on the back of her head in under 3 seconds, black bag raised high over my head in celebration..
Being a little gun shy, I didn't wanna transmit my "super arrest" over the radio before I consulted with another cop..After about 30-45 seconds the "chatter" amongst the passerbys must have made it to the adjoining footman, because he emerged from the croud of onlookers..I made eye contact with him, then looked at the bag and then made a face as if to say, I just arrested Pablo Escobar..The officer quickly secured my prisoner so I could check the bag and notify a supervisor..I turned my back to the croud and took a few steps toward the building line so I could conduct my celebration in private...As I begain to undo the knots that were tied in the bag I noticed the contents seemed to slosh a bit...I guess it didn't register proerly because I opened the bag about a foot away from my face..By far the DUMBEST thing I have ever done..When the other officer turned to see how I was doing, he witnessed the pathetic sight of me, leaning face first against the wall, with the bag hanging upside down from my hand, the contets spilled out all over my boots and the sidewalk..It was a bag full of the most horendous shit anyone has ever produced in the history of mankind..It had the consistency and color of chocolate cake mix..It smelled like a hundred dying organisms shit in this bag and then crawled into it and died, then after two weeks in the sun, a hundred more did the same thing...It made me, the other officer and at least two onlookers puke right there in the gutter..As it turned out the woman, who was the rapper Fabulous' older sister, shit in the bag so she didn't have to go back upstairs and delay her next "hit"..She was not nearly as embarrased as I was..She got a summons, I got to throw away my new boots and uniform pants..Shortly after comming in for work the next day I learned my new nickname was "shit bag"...I couldn't argue much, if the shit fits...But it thankfully it didn't stick for long and eventually I did end up getting that huge drug arrest..

[Hottub]

That was a great story, man.:thumbup:

I laughed, I cried, I dry heaved. Keep 'em coming.

[jonyrotn]

That was a great story, man.:thumbup:

I laughed, I cried, I dry heaved. Keep 'em coming.

Wait till I tell you about the one, when the guy got a hard on while I was searching him..Last time I stick my hand down a guy's pants looking for a black jack..There wasn't enough soap in the world for that one..

[Melissa the Accountant]

Damn, as I type this I really think I'm a lot stranger then I previously thought.

I think a lot of us have this, but we don't always think about it consciously. I have this weird thing where if I smell really new money, I immediately remember this children's picture Bible my parents got for me when I was little. I think it was the glue in the binding or something. It just had this particular smell to it.

But I get what you were saying about the reverse happening, where you remember something and THEN associate the smell. I am pretty sure I have had that happen before, but I racked my brain and can't think of a specific example to tell you. It's kind of a weird feeling when our brains do stuff like this - it's like you suddenly become aware that it's a brain thing. Like deja vu.

[sr71blackbird]

A few years ago I came upon my grandfathers old coat that he used to wear in my fathers house. I remember him wearing it as a kid and my grandparents moved to California to escape the cold. When I found the coat, I tried it on and I caught a whiff of my grandfather's scent. He is long since dead, and it flooded back memories of him from my youth.