What's your Memory?

[LepusLepus]

Raspberries.
This morning I'm having raspberries on my breakfast, and the scent of them is wonderful! They take me back to being a girl and playing with my cousin in her garden. Her mum my aunt, had many raspberry bushes in there, and when they were ripe cousin and I would pick a few and eat them in the 'hidey den' under the tree in the corner.

Those summer days with the tent out, dressing up, and nibbling on those dusky - smelling fruits, all washed down with pretend tea (orange juice) from a play cup and saucer. I can see it now.

There is a particular apple smell that takes me back.
Summer of 1978, in France, washing my hair with Alberto Green Apple shampoo, about to go outside for my birthday lunch laid out under a tree in the garden. 30 degrees and I was perfectly happy.
I still buy apple scented shampoos from time to time, and occasionally a waft of scent catapults me back.

My uncle grew tomatoes and his greenhouse was full of them. The smell of warm tomatoes makes me think of him, and my aunt who was an ace baker - her choux buns were wonderful. They had a lovely garden, and uncle put a swing up for me. I'm a bit teary (in a good way) remembering this x

Similar theme - strawberries. A massive glass bowl of them on a wooden table in a farmhouse kitchen at my mum’s friend’s house. It was hot, I was wearing a thin cotton dress and all the mum’s were in flowery long dresses too. It was the early eighties and I was about 3 years old. I can remember the heat and the endless strawberries.

The bowl was probably normal size but to a 3 year old looking up it was enormous!

The smell of wood-preserver takes me back to when I was 5 and we'd just got a new picnic table for the garden (which my dad painted in green wood preserver) - in the summer we ate outside whenever it wasn't raining - lettuce, hardboiled eggs, luncheon meat. Our tortoises would amble about hoping for stray bits of lettuce (for some reason they preferred stray bits to the big pile of lettuce we actually put out for them).

I had a navy and white summer dress that I loved, and a pair of red wedge sandals. In childhood days of only ever having one pair of shoes at a time, sandals were a big excitement.

Sweet Peas. My Grandad used to grow them for me on his allotment. The smell instantly takes me back.

@Scarby9 - I remember that shampoo and desperately wanted to try all the exotic promises made to us by the manufacturers. Sadly for me, my mum worked in a chemists and always bought their own, no nonsense cheap brand. Sigh! Birthday lunch in the garden sounds delightful.

@Greydog - ahh, memories do tug at us don't they. Your aunt and uncle sound fabulous.

@BillStickersIsInnocent - Endless strawberries.... what a dream!

@TiddyAndFletch - we had tortoises too! And how awesome to have red wedge sandals. I always had to have 'sensible' shoes summer and winter alike. But red sandals - I bet you lit up the pavements wearing those.

I bet you lit up the pavements wearing those

They made me feel special in a way none of the dozens of pairs of shoes I own as an adult could ever do .

@BernardsarenotalwaysSaints - Totally agree re the sweetpeas, and my grandad was the same. I can hear him now telling me to cut off the pods after flowering, as it would encourage a second lot of flowers.

Wet horse chestnut leaves.

The road from my parent's house to the bus stop was lined by horse chestnut trees. The leaves dropped early in the autumn and smelled fantastic after it rained. The smell takes me back to being in senior school and walking to the bus stop every morning to catch the bus to school. Weak autumn early morning sunlight and wet horse chestnut leaves can instantly transport me back to being eleven again.

The smell of fresh runner beans takes me back to my childhood as both my parents and grandparents grew them. Picked, cooked and eaten within about 30 minutes - "can't get fresher than that", we'd always say

I love smelling wild garlic, memories of roaming the fields like everyday was an adventure.

boot polish! Dad was in the army and when he came back to civvy Street he ran the recruitment office. Always smelled of boot polish. Also the cobblers at the top of the lane where we lived as children used to let us play in the shop and try on the high heels :-) so a double feel good memory for me.

The Clinique perfume Happy, I think it was called? Transports me back to being 17 and all the fun, music, heartache and bad decisions that came with it.

Isnt scent memory amazing!

Apple or coconut lip balm. Woolworths or Boots. In the pot, not a stick. Takes me back to the summer I was 14.

@TheWoollybacksWife

Wet horse chestnut leaves.

The road from my parent's house to the bus stop was lined by horse chestnut trees. The leaves dropped early in the autumn and smelled fantastic after it rained. The smell takes me back to being in senior school and walking to the bus stop every morning to catch the bus to school. Weak autumn early morning sunlight and wet horse chestnut leaves can instantly transport me back to being eleven again.

There's something so special about Autumn I feel.

@SkepticalCat

The smell of fresh runner beans takes me back to my childhood as both my parents and grandparents grew them. Picked, cooked and eaten within about 30 minutes - "can't get fresher than that", we'd always say

And do you still say it?

@EsmeraldasTambourine

I love smelling wild garlic, memories of roaming the fields like everyday was an adventure.

Yep - out after breakfast with a sandwich and drink - or a thruppenny bit for the shop. Didn't go home until tea time.

@ImSoMagical

boot polish! Dad was in the army and when he came back to civvy Street he ran the recruitment office. Always smelled of boot polish. Also the cobblers at the top of the lane where we lived as children used to let us play in the shop and try on the high heels :-) so a double feel good memory for me.

Sounds magical too!

@BumCat

The Clinique perfume Happy, I think it was called? Transports me back to being 17 and all the fun, music, heartache and bad decisions that came with it.

Ahhh, 17 could be hard couldn't it - hope you're in a happy place now?

@FedNlanders

Isnt scent memory amazing!

Absolutely. How can the mind store or even replicate a scent that you may not have been in contact for years!

@3Britnee

Apple or coconut lip balm. Woolworths or Boots. In the pot, not a stick. Takes me back to the summer I was 14.

But which was your favourite - and what did you do with the pot afterwards?