For me, the wonderful smell of GRAPE Bubble Yum was the ultimate best. As soon as I had enough money saved up from my allowance, (all 50 cents)… I would always spend it on GRAPE Bubble Yum…. Just thinking about it makes me want to go buy some right now!

Comment by Karen L. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:44 pm

I remember two strong smells - both outside. I loved the smell of grass and dirt. Reminds me of playing catch with my dad and playing softball as a kid. I also love the smell of leaves in the fall. I used to make great big piles in my gramma’s yard because she had these great big oak trees. We’d jump into them and bury each other in them. I love feelings of joy and freedom those smells still bring.

Comment by Jenna Regis on 5/23/2007 @ 12:44 pm

It’s a long way back, but I can remember when my mother would open a new can of coffee, she would always let me come over and smell as the can opener punctured the lid. I guess that’s why I like coffee so much.

Comment by Gene K on 5/23/2007 @ 12:45 pm

Chlorine… definitely chlorine. I don’t swim so much now but, when I was a kid, I swam almost every day in the summer. Certainly helped clear out the old sinus cavities!

Comment by Sarah P. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:45 pm

I adored the smell of my primary school building. To this day, if I close my eyes and think real hard, I can smell the strange combination of wood, lockers, sweat and assorted cleaners. There is nothing like going back for a visit and being greeted with the “safe” scent of PCS.

Comment by Megan M. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:46 pm

The smell of eggs frying, and cinnamon rolls. When I was in 4th grade, my parents would drop me off at my grandma’s place on their way to work. She would prepare 2 eggs, cinnamon rolls, and had the milk already poured in the fridge. She’d then help me MEMORIZE my spelling list. [I had a CRUEL 4th grade teacher!] Also, the smell of a new can of tennis balls for baseball in the back yard!

Comment by Mike C. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:46 pm

When I was little I loved stickers…and anyone who has ever gotten a letter from me knows that I’m still a sticker fanatic! I was very proud of my sticker collection, always happy to display (and sometimes trade) fuzzy stickers, shiny stickers, even glittery ones. But my all time favorite stickers were the “scratch and sniff” kind…only parted with for a VERY good trade! Those “gluey-papery-almost-real” smells of oranges, strawberries and root beer floats still bring the smile of an eight year old to my face!

Comment by Marci J. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:46 pm

The only thing that would cure my eye aches when I was growing up were the fruity flavored ORANGE chewable aspirin I thought was candy, but it always made me feel better…You all know what I’m talking about!! Now I know why they don’t make it anymore!!

Comment by Kathi Hurt on 5/23/2007 @ 12:47 pm

The wonderful smell of freshly cut hay in the fields makes me feel like Daddy’s little farm girl all over again. I love that smell! Also, the smell of a new basketball! loved to play basketball on my dad’s makeshift hoop in the machine shed. It makes me think of my dream to play on the Iowa women’s basketball team for college. The thought just brings back the smile of childhood to my face.

Comment by Sue Gudenkauf on 5/23/2007 @ 12:47 pm

I used to get up at 6am and open a can of Vienna Sausages. If you have ever eaten them..you’ll know what I mean. My tastebuds changed by age 10 and I haven’t had a can since..you know what? I’m going to go get me a can tomorrow..do they still make that stuff?

Comment by Gene Lamis on 5/23/2007 @ 12:47 pm

For me, the ultimate smell of my childhood was opening the packs of stickers for those baseball sticker albums. Those of you who had them Know what I am talking about. Nothing else in the world smelled like that. And it always seemed no matter how many packs I bought, I couldn’t get that Andre Dawson Cubs sticker even though my friends all had it. Why was it your friends always got the one you wanted but you never could? You couldn’t trade for it, you just had to get it yourself. I could go longer on this subject but you are probably bored by now. So i’ll just say my favorite smell was those packs of baseball stickers.

Comment by Keith M. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:48 pm

I would have to say I remember waking up from a nap to the smell of Mom’s homemade chocolate chip cookies. The smell would get me out of bed to see if there was any cookie dough left to eat even if it did make you feel sick after eating it. It was worth it…

Comment by Kristy Halm on 5/23/2007 @ 12:48 pm

I have three main smells…like Jason said… play-dough makes me think of how mom wouldn’t let us play with it in the house…the smell of crayons…I still like to open a box every now and then…and the smell of a pipe reminds me of Aunt Martha and Uncle Joe’s house….those were the days!

Comment by Becky Yedinak on 5/23/2007 @ 12:48 pm

Well this topic brings back a lot of ancient memories. I have many favorite childhood smells! Let’s start outdoors. I remember liking the smell of freshly cut green grass. Back in the old days people didn’t have those fancy gas powered lawnmowers. Most folks had these rotary types that would only cut if the blades were razor sharp, and they stayed sharp for about one pass, then the roller just flattened down the grass and made it look like it was cut. The next great outdoor smell is fireworks! I used to look forward to the 4th of July season just for that special smell in the air. I love the smell of gas. Leaded or unleaded it doesn’t matter -it all smells great to me! Here’s something a lot of you young folks have missed out on thanks to all those do gooder liberals, burning leaves - the perfect fall smell. Moving inside, another scent from the past is the farmer match. My mom had a special metal box just for matches to light the burners and the oven of her stove. Love that sulfur smell. One of my favorite childhood smells was the beef roasts that my pop used to cook for Sunday dinner. Those perfect roasts with the carrots and quartered potatoes mixed in with the beef. I didn’t realize how good of a cook my dad was until my mom took over the pot roast duties.

Now the next childhood smell may gross some of you out but here it goes. When you think of them walking in grass and dirt through pee and poop it’s hard to imagine that they could smell so neat! Give up? Why they are my dog’s paws. And if you are wondering, I have a dog now and yes I do smell her paws now and again.

Now for the ladies, forget those stinky candles with flowery smells. Invent some new manly scents for us guys like the ones above.

Comment by Walt K. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:49 pm

The smell I remember most from childhood, is the foul aroma of sour kraut. This aroma sticks out in my head because this disgusting food was once used as a bribe by my own mother. She insisted that in order to get to go to Toys r Us (The Mecca of all toy stores) the following day, we had to eat a whole plate of an unsavory sour kraut dish. Since then my tummy does a somersault whenever I catch a whiff of this poor excuse for food. My brothers surely will appreciate this unfortunate smell.

Comment by Dan K. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:49 pm

Fresh cut lumber! I’m surprised Walt K. didn’t list this, but maybe he spent too much time sniffing his dog’s paws! You have to wonder about that one and why he would admit to it now.

Comment by Dennis Riley on 5/23/2007 @ 12:50 pm

The aroma of apple juice and graham crackers is an immediate time warp to nursery school, age 3. It was the precursor to going into the BIG, DARK, CAVERNOUS storage room where 25 little cots were lined along the wall. This was the NAP ROOM (echo, echo…) There was no feeling quite as lonely as waking up ALONE in the NAP ROOM…

Comment by Shannon G. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:50 pm

The smell of Elmer’s Paste, not glue. It reminds me of all of those art projects I used to do in kindergarten. Paste was so much more fun than glue because you had to unscrew the lid and dip the dipstik in to get that unnecessary amount of glue on that construction paper. Plus, it didn’t taste all that bad back then.

Comment by Scott Heidemann on 5/23/2007 @ 12:50 pm

GOOD SMELLS: PASTE, yummmmmmmmmm,a NEW BOOK, A HOMEMADE CUP OF HERSEY’S COCOA the best for soothing a broken heart[made by your mother] violets and sweetpeas. BAD SMELLS GRANDMA CLEANING CHICKENS [chopping of their heads and dunking them in boiling water to pluck the feathers] yuck!!!!!!!!!, LIVER TASTES BAD. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT TO GO BACK TO FRESH CUT GRASS YANKEE CANDLES HAS A NEW CANDLE THAT WILL DO IT FOR YOU!!!

Comment by Michele Regis on 5/23/2007 @ 12:51 pm

Good smells….any kind of hot soup (usually split pea with ham) that filled the kitchen with warm fragrance after coming in from an afternoon of ice skating, Dad’s aftershave (Polo - but it doesn’t smell the same on anyone else), lilacs blooming in the spring (school would soon be out), autumn leaves burning, any cinnamon smell reminds me of Christmas cookies and candles, and eraser chalk dust (as a brownoser student the chalk dust meant I was the teacher’s pet for the day). Bad smells…the sawdust stuff they would pour on kid’s vomit piles in school - still hate that smell (and it seemed I was always in a class with a student who always got sick)! YECHH! The smell of venison or lamb cooking (all we could afford to eat when we were young and it smells and tastes soooo gamey! BLECCHH!

Comment by Jen M. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:51 pm

I was instantly reminded of middle school when I removed my daughter’s clothes from the dryer one night. She had left a Bubble Gum Bonnie Bell Lipsmacker in her pocket! I am going to leave the remains on my dresser to smell once in a while.

Comment by Tami V. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:51 pm

A SMELL THAT REMINDS ME OF CHILDHOOD IS “BEANIE WIENIES”. HOW I USED TO LOVE THEM. I REMEMBER GETTING THEM IN MY LUNCH BOX AND THINKING THAT MY MOM WAS THE GREATEST. EVERY NOW AND THEN, I SEE THEM IN THE GROCERY STORE AND IT TAKES ME BACK TO CHILDHOOD (I WOULDN’T DARE BUY THEM THOUGH)

Comment by Gina D. on 5/23/2007 @ 12:52 pm

Aromas associated with childhood: Brand new bookbag, you know, the rubberized kind, smells it just came off the factory line. Fresh cut hay, I could breathe in that smell day and night, it’s the smell of home. Homemade bread on a Sat., Mom used every pan in the house and sometimes even sent us to the neighbors to borrow some of their pans. Doing dishes were worth that hot bread smothered with butter and then to top it off we would get to help cut cinnamon rolls with the packaging string, bake and then gobble ‘em up , hardly ever left much of these to freeze for later. The leftover crust from making pies, all covered with cinnamon and butter. Yummy!!! Egg in a hole, fried red ripe tomatoes with a whole pile of toast smothered with butter to dip into our tomatoes (this is an old German tradition passed down form my paternal grandmother and I am sure from previous ancestors from Luxomberg.) Ham sandwiches, chips, and 14 day sweet pickles at Grandma Gudenkauf’s for Sunday brunch at her house. Boiled potatoes otherwise known as ‘Candy Bars’ my maternal Grandpa used to call them to try and convince us to eat them at Sunday dinners down home where my Mother grew up. God’s fertilizer, otherwise known as manure, it stinks, but nothing else quite says “HOME”, like this distinctive aroma when you are driving through the countryside or are on the interstate. Hot cocoa when you have just finished about an hour of sleigh riding . Mom’s chilli right after you’ve had your first cup of cocoa. The smell of my Dad after he had been working all day, smells of the farm and the sweat of a long but good days work , we always told him he stunk, then he would give us a good whisker rub to tease us even more. Clean fresh sheets just off the clothesline, nothing smells like it!!! Lily of the valley, bridal wreath (grew on bushes right outside of the kitchen window), apples picked right off the tree (I’d climb up high as I could for the one nearest to the heavens, those were the best ones!!!), peonies (pink ones and white ones all covered with ants , (mom says the ants help the flowers, so don’t bother them.), Strawberries just picked from the patch, washed off at the pump. Wild mulberrries, red, white and black ones. Blackcaps and morale mushrooms just picked from Grandpa’s woods. A hotdog roasted over a campfire in the cornfield outside Grandpa’s woods with Dad with a glass of Mom’s home squeezed lemonade.

Well, as you can see most smells relate to food and the country, and of course family. I dream someday of having those things again now that I appreciate them more

Comment by Lois A. GUdenkauf on 5/23/2007 @ 12:52 pm

Reading through all of these brought back such great memories! I didn’t see my favorite though. I love the smell of water from the garden hose as it hits hot cement on a hot summer day. The water is hot from the hose lying in the sun and it has this great earthy smell. I also love the smell of new crayons in the box, play-dough, Bonne Bell Wild Raspberry Lip Smacker, Campbell’s Tomato Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
I think the best part about being a parent (my daughter is 6 1/2) is that you get to enjoy these things all over again! I bought her an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas because I know she’ll love it and I always wanted one!

Comment by Laura Lawrence on 5/23/2007 @ 12:53 pm

Dunno what smell, erm, the taste that brings me most back to childhood would be the drink Lilt…

Comment by Jen on 5/23/2007 @ 12:53 pm

My favorite smell is right after there has been a late winter rain, and all that you can smell is last year’s wet leaves. Oddly, it has a feeling of spring.

Comment by Fran on 5/23/2007 @ 12:54 pm

The smell of church - specifically the way old church bathrooms smell, perhaps it was the disinfectant. It always takes me back to childhood - because church bathrooms were a scary place.
The wonderful smell of egg salad, the kind without peppers or anything beside eggs and miracle whip, and dipping crackers into a big bowl of it. It was a favorite Sunday evening meal when I was a small child.

Comment by Leisl Vietzek on 5/23/2007 @ 12:54 pm

That’s easy. Bubble gum!

Comment by Allan Dash on 5/23/2007 @ 12:54 pm

Mothballs..i guess from great grandmas closet

Comment by Sarah on 5/23/2007 @ 12:54 pm

I am not sure. Probably chocolate chip cookies (when we had them), Hot cocoa, Kitty doo doo, Cinnamon toast, French fries from McDonald’s or some other fast food resturaunt, Dad’s farts, Bakcd goods, Home made Play Dough, Must and dust, etc.

Comment by Michelle on 5/23/2007 @ 1:01 pm

The smell of Play-Do, and chalk. I’m hispanic, so also the smell of tortillas with butter.

Comment by Corina on 5/23/2007 @ 1:01 pm

The smell of dirt that’s in the air right before it rains. Makes me think of Australia and my home.

Comment by Anne from Thailand on 5/23/2007 @ 1:11 pm

Oh my goodness…….. PlayDoh, my dad’s aftershave (Old Spice, Blue Stratos) any kind of chicken soup on a rainy day, koko laisa (chocolate rice, mum used to make every friday nite), aaaaaaaah the memories…

Comment by Maima on 5/23/2007 @ 1:11 pm

The smell of clothes or bed sheets off the clothes line makes me think of my childhood because we did not always have a dryer and even when we did have a dryer, my Mama liked to hang stuff on the clothes line to save electricity. OOOHHHHHH the smell of clean sheets when you go to bed!!! MMMMMM

Comment by Tammy on 5/23/2007 @ 1:12 pm

I still love to deeply inhale the smell of a new doll baby’s hair.

Comment by Paula Hopping on 5/27/2007 @ 10:37 am

Great topic!

There are a few for me.

1. The US Navy Ships my dad was stationed on. They all seemed to have a certain scent.
2. The bakery that my Grandfather worked at (plus, he always slipped me a cookie and a kaiser roll)
3. The old style report cards that you had to peel apart. Yes, I am that old.
4. Some unidentified tree that had huge brown pods coming off of them. Dogwood?

Comment by jeffd on 5/29/2007 @ 11:34 pm