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...

"Don't be embarrassed Gruntfuttock you have just 'backdated' your luffly smell."

Except it was far from 'luffly' quite the opposite.

Ah. Ooops. x post.

Never smelt it, myself.

Sounds like I should be grateful!

They have changed the smell of Pears Soap. The bastards....

They changed the smell of Palmolive soap too, years back. It's never been the same since.

I remember a butchers shop with sawdust on the floor. Distinct metallic blood smell, mixed with the sawdust. Early 80s.

I think it's age - the sense of smell seems to diminish over time for some people.

As for washing less in the 80s - c'mon, are you serious?! I was in my twenties then and showered every day.

Gleam I'm 43 and my sense of smell is very good.

We did shower every day in the eighties - but not in the seventies.

I sometimes think that time travel would be ruined if you wanted to go back more than 30 years because you'd be so aware of the BO (sensitive flower)

I work in a social club so sometimes go home stinking of beer. Dh says he loves it. :o. I grew up in a pub and used to go to school stinking of beer and fags. Last night we had a bloke in who reeked to high heaven of stale lard. It was revolting.

In the early 80's I used to stay with my Grandma in semi rural Lancashire. She had a coal fire. The whole neighbourhood used to smell of smoke. If I ever smell burning coal, TCP, coal tar soap or pine disinfectant it takes me back to feeling the snuggest and cosiest time of my life. I have a bottle of TCP but I just open it occasionally to remind me of my grandma. She used to have those soft flannelette striped sheets and bedding. She washed them in Dreft. Not seen that in years either.

Plenty of 70s houses were built without showers, so I don't think showering every day was the basic standard in the 80s - even 90s, like it is now though it became more and more popular as time went on.

Going to matches as a kid in the 80s I distinctly remember the smell of pipe tobacco in the stands from all the ould lads smoking pipes. That smell will never, ever be replicated as smoking's no longer allowed in stadiums and old men don't smoke pipes anymore. Even though I hate smoking I'm still kinda sad about that - strange!

I now it's not a smell, but you never really hear men whistling any more - there was always some bloke whistling in the 70s

gleam many houses didn't have showers in the 80s ours included. You'd get a bath but it would often be third or fourth hand and grey with soap scum. Hair was rinsed off with an old mug or of later days a hose attached to the taps via a bung.

The Tube smelt differently too

there are some stations that still have The Tube smell but not many mainly on the northern line

I love the smell its a London smell

80's perfume that should have come with a health warning. Paris was my first 'grown-up' perfume. I also seem to remember having Anais Anais at some point. Took me most of the 80's to realise it was perfume that was triggering the migraines - doh!

I'd forgotten about TCP, that's another comforting memory for me - and I've just remembered Vosene shampoo as well.

That Poison perfume was poison, guaranteed to trigger a migraine.

I remember following someone up some stairs in a shop and nearly choking on the smell of her Charlie perfume, she must have used the whole bottle.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s on a farm so it was mainly cow shit and sheep shit. Lived suburban life. Now back to sheep shit.

there are some stations that still have The Tube smell

I know the smell, it smells like hot grease. Bizarrely, when I was at college there was one long corridor that had the London underground smell.

oh so that is what the smell is

I love the smell I have never smelt it anywhere else may have to visit your old college second thoughts maybe not what on earth is going on there

We moved into a new house with a separate shower cubicle in the ensuite plus one over the bath in the main bathroom in the mid 70s, so daily showers were the norm for us from then but it was definitely daily baths before that.

Agree with so many of these. Was just thinking the other day at parents evening how the DC's school smelled of nothing - all clean and sanitised, nothing like my school.

Any why can't I find a real Christmas tree that actually bloody smells like pine? My whole house smelled of pine in the 70's/80's at Christmas but the ones today - even the ones advertised a strongly scented - have no smell.

As for the other things, I think generally it's all the air con and air filters everywhere these days.

Getting really nostalgic now for pipe smoke, cooking smells and proper smelling flowers. And Christmas trees!

My Irish primary school in the late 80s smelled of damp coats in the cloakroom, tinfoil wrapped billy roll sandwiches for lunch, and marla. Which was always played with on squares cut out from some teacher's left over lino .

Our street always smelled of proper coal fires.

Granda smelled of old spice, and getting washed in the morning when we stayed in Nan and Granda's smelled of lifebuoy soap (which Granda called red soap) and Granda's spit on a hankie that was vigorously rubbed on the back of our necks

We didn't have a shower in our house in the 80s either. And we had to put the water on to get a tank of hot water, which had to go round everyone.
A lot of people also didn't have central heating, so bathrooms were freezing, which led to less washing.
Also there wasn't this thing that you wore a different outfit every day. My mum has a shower a still washes with a flannel , and wears the same jumper all week. She doesn't smell bad, but if everybody is doing that it will be a smellier world.
I don't think food smells the same now. I remember the smell of roasted chicken being amazing.
Our house smelled of cat pee, dust, Superkings and rich tea biscuits.

"billy roll sandwiches"

What is that?

Am crying at 'shit and mince'.

Maybe I'll email Yankee Candle and suggest it as a new fragrance - they do like their evocative smells.after all.......