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?"

I have a strange one that hits me so strongly every time.

My friend works in a new build office and on days that I am working over on her side of the city I meet her in her office and we walk to the bus stop and travel home together.

when she is packing up each evening, she puts some stuff in a small meeting room out the way, and then brings it out in the morning.

I carried stuff in once to help her…and oh my goodness the smell. I don’t know if it’s the wood, or the fact the building is fairly new, possibly combined with a slight smell of sweat from people during the day (sorry)…

….but it reminds me my dad.

when I was a teenager he converted his loft into an office as he became self employed and was working from home. He did it over a summer and I helped him with it. Again, not sure if it’s the wood, fresh sweat…..I don’t know. But these two places are the only times I’ve smelt that particular smell.

My dad died last year and I’m just heartbroken. Doing ok, but heartbroken.

As strange as it sounds, as soon as my friend messages asking if I’m around and will I meet her at her office, that smell is the first thing I think of, and more or less as soon as I arrive I start carrying stuff into that room for her

Dont know what it is that hits so strongly, but it always does.

Certain songs are like a time travel machine.

Pretty much the whole 'Grease' album transports me back to my childhood lounge, watching the record spin and knowing every lyric.

'Money money money' by ABBA puts me at the rowing boats on Petersfield lake. I have no idea why, it must have been on the radio as we drive there.

'Groovy kind of love' by Phil Collins is starting college and the wrenching feelings of a broken heart after being dumped.

So many kids programme theme tunes bring back huge emotions of being a young mum having a toddler and new baby putting the TV on to get a break. Particularly Playbus and Come Outside. If I need a wallow I'll look those up on YouTube, but the emotions and feeling of wanting to go back can be too overwhelming.

For me it’s the smell of a just blown out candle, every time it takes me back to the magic and excitement of Christmas as a small child and my dad who loved Christmas and who is no longer around.

What a lovely thing to say. I hope you would (like me) and viceversa! 🙏

Seeing a cat stretched out on the road enjoying the sun. Reminds me of calmer times when there were less cars whizzing everywhere (I'm 56 so thinking of the '70s).

Also my dad. Anytime I get a whiff of Becks beer I’m transported back to our caravan holidays in the early 90s , which I think was the only time he would have a beer.

I don’t think it would have been particularly Becks that he was drinking, but there’s something kind of “earthy” about the smell of Becks that in reminiscent of the smell of him then - possibly just the beer mixed with grass / earth, I’m not sure.

The smell of creosote

straight away i am back in 1976, my grandad is painting the fence with creosote, me and my cousins are are having a teddy bear picnic in the garden on hay as grass is so dry and my nanny is cooking a roast dinner, as we of course would still be having a roast dinner at 1pm on a sunday afternoon

it evokes the smell of roast dinner too

Oh absolutely wood pigeons for me too. It always reminds me as a child going to bed in the summer when it was still light outside and I could hear the pigeons.

Also the taste of ginger beer reminds me of Christmas as we were allowed to get bottles of pop!

Drifting off for a nap on a hot sunny day and hearing a lawnmower outside in a neighbour’s garden.

That half awake/ asleep state you only get lying on a beach after a day swimming

The smell of baby powder reminds me of swimming as a child, always had it put on me in case of any damp creases!

Gorse bushes when hot they have a certain smell a bit like coconut and pineapple. Remind me of childhood spent on the paths and cliffs above a local beach, takes me right back.

You can still buy Bristle hairspray. I bought some from Savers recently. I bought some because my first boyfriend used to use it 🥺

I’ve had a good think about this.

Perhaps I’m weird and emotionless, but there isn’t any thing that triggers intense nostalgia or emotions for me at all.

Exactly my childhood memories too. There was no concept of a Sunday without a full roast dinner.

Nivea cream in the blue tin, reminds me of my nan whenever I smell it.

Me too.
But lot of my childhood i don't remember.

Listening to radio 4 really quietly late at night or early morning. Reminds me of going into my parents bed as a child if I couldn't sleep and it's really comforting!

Glass cleaner , reminds me of working in my uncles hairdressers on a Saturday I was 16 ,one of my jobs was to clean all the mirrors,

The smell of the tube!

That's true - especially Baker Street for me. It scared me a lot - the old barriers that squashed you, the colours of the place, all the brown, and the weird levels. I think my Mum used to be stressed in general ducking and diving through it with me as a small child - it definitely passed on!

The sounds of woodpigeons and prop aeroplanes reminds me of the house I grew up in.

Hairspray and Creme Puff face powder - my Mum. Machine oil/EP 90 - my Dad.

Baked potato is the smell of my 60's 70's childhood. Saturday night in front of the TV watching The Golden Shot. The only meal we were allowed to have not at the table.

There’s a smell of a cleaning chemical that I associate with a day when I was 4. I’ve smelled it very rarely since - but it takes me back straight to that day.

Doesn’t have to be your childhood necessarily.

The song ‘Blue’ by Eiffel 65.