Wednesday 18 September 2013

Smelly Memories

I’ve been thinking about smells today. My main character in Glass Houses spends time coming out of a coma and is tickled when the whiff of her mother’s stale coffee breath is the first sign that her sense of smell is returning. All she wants to do then is smell and takes a good drag on a host of items from her mother’s handbag. But it’s an old book which she stays with for the longest. The pages squeezed against her nose remind her of childhood memories – good and bad.

When I was growing up my father often had a book pressed to his nose. First-hand, and he wanted to imbibe the book’s newness, the printing process, the excitement of the story to come. If it was old, a good inhalation took him back to night time reading under the covers with a torch. That’s what he told me anyway.

I am not as cultured as my main character or my dad. If I’m asked what smells conjure up my early years then I am compelled to mention Shock Waves hairspray. My friends and I used to buy huge bottles of it from the ‘cheap shop’ (we didn’t have pound shops then) and I don’t particularly remember noticing the smell at the time. I was far too busy back-combing and choosing the most appropriate ribbon or netted scarf to lose in the tangled pile of hair to notice.

But when my children happened upon a bottle a few years ago, I couldn’t get enough of it. You’d think it was Chanel no. 5 – which takes me back to my twenties but that’s another story. One puff of the horribly environmentally unfriendly aerosol and I was back with Madonna and the school disco on Wednesday nights, even though I wasn’t allowed to go until I was in the third year - year nine to the uninitiated – much to the outrage of my friends. I’m not sure I was that bothered, more worried I wouldn’t know how to dance when I got there. It took me back to boyfriends and Adam Ant and make-overs with Rachel which would take us all day just for the before-and-after photos. Where did we get the time? 

It took me back to my yellow bedroom, to tennis in the garden which was way too small and to the breeze block garage we painted white one year much to the total humiliation of me and my three sisters, broadcasting to all our friends our parents’ embarrassing flirtation with the Mediterranean. Oh the shame of the white garage!

But most of all the smell took me back to the holiday in Majorca when my five foot four grandpa with size three feet drove us to the airport and had to take my hairspray home again because they wouldn’t let it on the plane. He hadn’t got a bag with him and we were amused at the prospect of him walking through the airport back to the tiny car (in which we’d crammed six of us including the driver) with an excessively large tin of pink hair spray; particularly as he only had one of those white rings of hair which orbited a bald head. He died soon after the airport lift. This tiny man with a huge bottle of hairspray is one of my last memories of him and it does make me smile.
My bottle was definitely pink!
Thanks to Helen nee Dion for
remembering the name :)

So, what I want to know is, what is it that takes you back? What’s that smell which propels you into your past? Is it a book or is it something less cerebral? Please share! 

26 comments:

  1. OK, your Shock Waves memory has triggered one of mine. I used to use (we *all* used to use) Country Born hair gel, a gloopy handful of transparent green whose smell (before they discontinued it) would transport me, in an instant, back to Saturday nights in 1984. *sigh*

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    1. Jaxbee18 September 2013 16:35
      Shelley, I was more of a mousse girl myself but I think I know the stuff you mean - I think you could get that in our 1980s pre-cursor to pound stretcher, too :) 1984, eh? Seems like yesterday, and yet... Thanks for reading!

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  2. Lovely post! I was just remembering, while searching for a new shampoo, the smell of Clairol Herbal Essence shampoo. They are still producing the line, but the old, dark-green shampoo with the scent of new-mown hay is gone forever.

    For a moment I remembered the scent, and was back at my first year in college. Girls with long manes of straight heir (achieved through the use of blow-dryers, round brushes and, sometimes, irons). Popcorn... My first banana split.

    (Your grandfather sounded charming!)

    Diana at About Myself By Myself

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    1. Thanks for your lovely comment, Diana. You know, I don't know the smell of the Clairol shampoo but I'm sure I remember the adverts - although I might be getting mixed up with Timotei. Everyone I knew used Tomotei! I'm so glad I didn't know about ironing hair back then - it would be even frizzier than it is now if I had done.
      And yes, he was a sweetheart!
      Thanks for popping by!

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  3. A delicate whiff of certain smells take me to my gramma's house as a little girl and her air fresh linen sheets, to my parents basement, etc...These are wonderful memories that I relive for the moment.

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    1. Yes! Freshly washed bedding is definitely a good one - and the feel of it is great, too! Thanks Cathrina!

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  4. What a lovely post :o) Smells are so evocative and I must admit I've always loved sniffing books, and it's still the first thing I do when I pick one up!

    Apart from that, it's the the smell of baking that propels me back to childhood as it's what my mum and gran did nearly every day of the week - bread, cakes, date slices... ooh, I'm feeling hungry now!

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    1. Ah, a book sniffer. I wonder if you've got a Kindle? Maybe they'll have to develop a like-smelling book App?? Smell is such a powerful reminder isn't it but the funny thing is, you can't remember a smell until you smell it, if you see what I mean (unless that's just me?). I couldn't describe the hair spray now but would know it in an instant. Bread baking is just one of the best smells ever! Thanks Karen.

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  5. coconut suntan lotion- love it.......!!!!?????I think we used it on our first holiday abroad to the South of France!

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    1. YES! I absolutely remember that. And that terrible dark brown oil we used to use that just made me fry - and then peel. I shudder to think what I did to my poor, pale skin but we just didn't know, did we. Thanks for reading!

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  6. I don't often notice smells unless they are really strong which usually means really bad. I think it is due to my smoking. As when I attempted to quit suddenly I could smell all kinds of new things. Some lovely and some not so much. I did; however, used to love the smell of the old books at the local used book store when I was younger. :)

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  7. Another book sniffer. There are a lot of you around! I might have to have another go, see what I'm missing :)I didn't know giving up smoking heightens your sense of smell - I have to ask, did you manage to give up? Hope so!

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  8. visiting for Celebrate the Small things. new GFC follower
    Hope you can visit my Celebrate Small Things

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  9. Thanks Michie. Celebrate Small is a lovely uplifting blog idea, nice to be part of it. I hope you'll have fun and of course I'll take a look.

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  10. Tomato plants in my grandfather's conservatory. One whiff of pears soap and I can almost touch the black and white tiles in my childhood bathroom. Roasting lamb and once again I am gripped with morning sickness. Geranium plants take me to my father's carefully tended window boxes (they appeared in my book too!)

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    1. Thanks for a fantastic list, one shoes! Tomato plants have such a distinctive smell don't they, and nothing like the tomato itself, I always think. Oh that morning sickness sense of smell - never has my fridge been so clean! Sunday roasts generally are a winner, aren't they :)

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  11. Oooh - I'm a book sniffer too! I'd say that smell is my most acute sense and so many aromas bring back a host of sharp vivid memories. Books (the library with my dad), baking (my mum's homemade wheaten bread), greasy frys (my gran's house), home grown tomatoes (my grandfather's greenhouse), pear drops (the sweet shop on the way home from school) ... and vinegar - well, that's another story altogether!
    A fabulous post, Jackie. Thank you! X

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    1. Vinegar?? That's a story we need to hear! And bread, yes of course, and unlike bacon (which I think smells just amazing when it's cooking but the taste never quite lives up to it for me) tastes even more lovely on eating - especially still warm. Feeling a bit peckish now... thanks for popping by!

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  12. Lovely post and interesting comments. I'm another who remembers the smell of her grandfather's tomatoes in his greenhouse. Those classic 70s smells, Brut and Charlie, take me straight back to my teens. Later, when I left school and went to work in Harrods, I used to grab a free squirt of Estee Lauder's Private Collection every day. Discovered recently that they still make it, although now it smells far too strong for me to feel comfortable wearing it.

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    1. Thanks for popping in Janet - great list, the smell of tomato plants is proving very popular! I know what you mean about perfume. I was obsessed with Dune in my early twenties - all my birthday presents were versions of it: soap; body lotion; bubble bath .... it all seemed very decadent as I considered it to be hugely expensive and I was proper poor back then (well, in a student kind of cash-poor kind of way). I'm not sure I'd touch it if I smelt it today - but it would take me back :)
      What a great job working in Harrods - I bet that was an experience, rife for character and plot inspiration too, I shouldn't wonder??

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  13. nooooo.... I'm an avid gardener and hate the smell of tomato plants. And cut grass. M&S did a room scent of tomato plants one year if my memory serves.
    My favourite smells are Swarfega, the green gloopy cleaning gel (reminds me of my dad) and I also love the smell of Germolene ointment (from early days in the pharmacy)

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  14. How funny! I can't imagine how you couldn't like the smell of tom plants and cut grass - do they make you think of jobs to be done? Cut grass makes me think of sitting in the garden,I'm not sure why, it's not something I really manage to do a lot but maybe I just like the idea of it. I even like the sound of people mowing the grass which I know some people hate but it just sounds like sun shine to me. And I love the sound of planes overhead on a warm day - because it makes me think of holidays. I can feel a 'best sounds' post coming on! Can't quite think of the smell of Swarfega but do LOVE the smell of Germolene - again, not sure why as it just makes me think of being injured. Thanks for reading, Hazel!

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  15. Smells are good, and I like Chanel No. 5 too.

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    1. Isn't it funny how you can't remember what things smell like until you get a whiff and you know immediately what it is? All I remember about Chanel No. 5 was that it seemed very grown up :) Thanks for reading :)

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  16. This is one of the best written posts I've read in a long time. I really enjoyed reading about how smells could conjure up your past - and you had some fun adventures with hair spray and makeovers, huh? The anecdote about your grandfather was funny and touching. Great post! :-)

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    1. Awww thanks Lexa :) I thought of so many other smells which take me back to places once I'd written the post. It's funny how smell seems to be so evocative for people and yet so hard to describe.

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