To think that the 70's and 80's smelled more?

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

It may sound odd....I have a very acute sense of smell and many of my memories are tied up with smells.

I can recall the most faint but specific odors....I can sort of bring them back.

THe smell of the outdoor bounds centre my class went to for two days when I was 10 in 1982. Positively VICTORIAN in it's smell.

My friend's house....shit and mince.

The hall behind the chapel....wet coats, cheap rubber and dust.

Is it just me?

I still have a strong sense of smell but scents are far more pleasant now...

Hmm
Men's smell probably that with carbolic soap and swarfega. Rubbing linament fags and Uncle Joes mint balls.
A perfume Tom Ford struggles to replicate.

I miss the beer and smoke smell that used to hit you when you opened a pub door.
So do I Noel

Christmas trees used to fill the whole room with their wonderful scent and there's nothing like it now

My memory of the 70s - is the Brut aftershave that teenage boys would
douse themselves in, also patchouli oil and the very unpleasant smell from wet Afghan coats. The 80s is Poison perfume. Both decades smelt of cigarette smoke - even non-smokers reeked as the smell clung to clothes and hair.

I associate smells with people and places. My DF is Aramis, DM Channel No 5, DGF cigar smoke. There is a smell of fermenting vegetation that takes me back to a holiday in the Loire Valley

Don't remember the 70s, but yes, the 80s smelt more! I guess there were a lot of strong oders that we don't have as much now - more people smoked, more people had real fires that stank, people washed hair and bodies less often... So perfumes/fragrances in products needed to stronger to cover the strong background smells.

I also have a very strong sense of smell and understand what you mean about remembering in smells.

Men's smell was a tweed jacket infused with pipe smoke and old spice with a hint of peppermint and whisky.

Cut grass reminds me of the 70's, as does eggy bread (my friends house always smelled of eggy bread). Not sure the era was smellier, I think it's purely a memory trigger thing if that makes sense.

A smell I remember from the 80s is Barbour Waxed Jackets. Never understood the appeal.

Well if its any comfort OP, hospital wards smell the EXACT same. Stale piss and vegetable soup.

Brut and patchouli - yes!

And Aqua Manda and Tabu.

Everyone smoked, factory chimneys belching out smoke, coal fires a bath and a hair wash once a week and older men generally didn't wear deodorant.

That wonderful smell after dark when everyone had a coal fire going. It was such a winter smell. I also remember the smell of my parents smoking in the car and the smell of a match being blown out. Outrageous now but two smells I associate with being cosy.

My childhood library smelt so beautifully...booky! I absolutely loved it. I went for an interview at Porthmouth Uni and it smelt exactly, but exactly like my old infant school. I felt at home instantly.

I do have a very strong sense of smell and the dc seem to have inherited it. When they're not all stuffed up that is! It's a part of life that seems to have passed DH by. Sometimes that's an advantage! I have to careful which and how much washing powder I use. I've stripped fresh pillowcases off my pillows in the middle of the night because the fragrance was too strong.

Me too Emily. Also had to change after being hugged by someone nasty with a strong smelling perfume.

This was mt favourite smell of the late 80s.

I know exactly what you mean. I grew up in the 80's and everything definitely smelt more. I preferred it, everything is so sanitised these days. Even things like wallpaper paste and paint smelt more, I think. Maybe that is just a memory trigger of my Dad decorating the house but I really think they did. Does anybody remember Smellyvision in the 80's?

I'm in Australia now so I think I'm getting nostalgic....this is only my 3rd month and of course, November here smells VERY different to November in England.

I must say though that the grocers here do have that retro smell....

I was just thinking today about the waft of garlic you'd get when walking past a restaurant.

There was definately more of my favourite smell creosote

I often buy old books and inhale that musty smell as that's not changed at all....I loved the smell of our village library.

I wonder if we also pay less attention to smell as we age.

I don't....I'm always noticing it. Some people's sense of smell fades...my Mum and my MIL's have a lot.

MIL looks after DNephew and never knows he's shat!

Ahhh, the chemistry lab at school. That heady mix of wood and vapour.
The best Christmases smelled of Brut as worn by my cousin and favourite uncle.
Swooned here to Drakkar Noir while wearing Body Shop White Musk.

Remembered another one! How shops smelt on holiday. The little convenience type shops that sold ice lollies and buckets and spades and newspapers and groceries. The local co-op smells like that at the entrance. I take great lungfuls of it when I go in. So evocative.

NoonAim "And Aqua Manda and Tabu."

Aqua Manda was gorgeous. I was so pleased when I heard it had been relaunched recently, but despite claims by the manufacturers that it's the same, all the reviews I have read say very differently. Disappointing.

As for Tabu that was disgusting. I have a very good sense of smell and remember all the old perfumes, as in the early 1970's I worked in the perfumery department of Bourne & Hollingsworth, which was a department store at the 'wrong' end of Oxford Street.

Oooh! Having just pressed 'post' I remembered another one that was very popular then:- Charlie by Revlon.