What is the strangest thing that triggers intense nostalgia or emotion for you?

[Missohnoyoubetterdont]

Not the standard smell of cut grass or old perfume. I mean something completely specific and quirky. For me, it is the sound of wood pigeons calling on a warm summer’s evening , or the feeling when you get up really early and there’s that stillness and possibility hanging in the air , I think it’s the wonderful feeling of potential and reminds me of travelling in hot sunny climbs. Other weird one is the smell of hot water bottles! Reminds me of childhood. It gives me a profound, aching sort of homesickness for a time I can’t quite name. What is your weird emotional trigger?"

If I remember correctly, that was last in the book (or very near the end).
Fun fact, I learned it's by Donald Swann of Flanders & Swann fame.

Autumn Days, the opening hymn of September terms, was number 4.

The smell of varnish on a floor takes me back to school. The caretaker would varnish the hall floor with a creamy brown varnish over the holidays that always seemed to be slightly sticky, so he put down a scattering of sand. We then had to sit cross legged on the floor for our assembly and sing All Things Bright and Beautiful.

I once had to pull over whilst driving when a particular Ben Folds Five song came on the radio. Felt like I'd been hit by a train.

More nostalgia-wise then definitely the Body Shop smalls - White Musk, good grief!! The most evocative scent ever, and I didn't even like it that much! Also Ski yoghurts and Vitalite tubs = my grandparents' house.

5am on a sunny summer morning reminds me of getting up early in my youth to get ponies ready for a show or in my later years to get tacked up for a hack out on to the forest in order to avoid the worst of the crab flies.

Yes, same with me! For some reason I find this very verysad. Now I have it in my head! 😔

When I hear the song Hold Me Close by David Essex, I freeze to the spot with fear because it was in the charts when I first started learning to swim. I quickly discovered that learning to swim was utterly terrifying to me - the smell of chlorine, the noise, the lighting. Oh and of course the fear of drowning🤣 But that song kept going through my head at the time and now it immediately brings back those unsettling memories. It’s a good song though!

Creosote - reminds me of my dad painting the fences in the summer. I don’t think you can buy it now

Ah! You brought back one for me with one of those songs 🥹 Happy tears though xx

That also reminded me of the smell of talcum powder which I was doused in after swimming lessons! ❤️

Then talcum powder became the root of all evil I remember! I presume the production process has since changed!

I recently realised that bodyshop have brought back Dewberry perfume! Now that was the smell of my teenage years. I might have to buy some.

Yes, I heard this too. Carcinogenic?

@SinisterBumFacedCat Ahh yes, baby tomatoes that have ripened on the vine smell EXACTLY like my granddad's greenhouse in 1992!!

A specific plastic smell. Reminds me if the giant rubber ring I had for holidays when I was about 7 or 8. I went to an airport and there was a blue plastic film on the windows, exactly the same shade as the rubber ring. Took me straight back to Studland beach!

They did! The smell of a petrol station/garage was a pregnancy craving of mine in the early 90s, i used to live near a garage and would deliberately walk past so I could get a sniff 😀

I think it was linked to that, yes. I haven't seen talc for years. Not looked for it I suppose.

Mine is the towels after a boil wash, hot washing powder takes me back to sitting with my mum using her twin tub washing machine, the smell is amazing.

The smell of Pernod. I was once very very sick from Pernod 🙈

🤢 me too.!

The smell of jacket potato and beans, sometimes it smells a certain way and reminds me of when I was in nursery (I'm in my 50s).

A car noise in the distance on a warm summers evening, the window open. Takes me back to getting ready as a teenager in my bedroom to go out with my friends or boyfriend.

CK One

Shiny tacky foil type Christmas decorations remind me strongly of primary school. See also little shiny foil shapes like snowflakes used for arts and crafts.

Yes!
What people have said is so interesting that I looked up the connection between smells and nostalgia.

Apparently the olfactory area of the brain is more closely connected to the amygdala (responsible for emotions), and the hippocampus ( responsible for memory) than the other sense areas are.

This is why smells in particular evoke old feelings and memories.

My nostalgic smell is plasticine from infant school days, making rabbits, cakes and baskets!

This is really weird, but it happens every single time whenever I see someone reading a book and I can see the words on the page (usually a stranger on a bus or train sat next or near to me). I get a really strange feeling of remembrance when I was little and reading books constantly. It’s like a physical strange feeling of Deja vous, I can’t really explain it but it does take me back to those early days of discovering a new story in a book.