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...

Gruntfuttock, I didn't know that about Aqua Manda, I'll have a look for it.

I also went through gallons of Pagan perfume - between that and the Tabu I must have stunk!

Grunt Billy Roll is that processed meat with a face on each slice.

In Australia they call it Smiley Fritz and when you go to the butcher, lots of them give the kids a slice on a piece of greasproof paper to eat while you shop.

My kids love that because I'd NEVER buy that shit but they know I'm too polite to refuse it!

Do you mean Billy Bear? My DS's staple diet

Oh I see. Thanks TheHouseOnTheLane

I miss the smoke in crowded pubs and gigs cos now you smell bodies and farts, would rather smell cigarette smoke tbh! Perfume reminds me strongly of various times in my life - Body Shop White Musk was my perfume of choice at school! Whiff of that brings it all back!

People who drove a lot smelled of petrol. Nobody smells of petrol now.

I still remember the smell of a shop at the bottom of my road in the late 60's and 70's - It was a hardware shop run by a woman called Vera, she sold everything, loads of little boxes from the floor to ceiling with nails, nuts and screw, she knew where everything was which always amazed me.

The floor was wooden floorboards and the smell of paraffin and bare wood was delicious - I can smell it now

Also the smell of coal - there was coal everywhere in those days, piled up in a coal bunker and coal shops on ever corner - Luverly!

Stripy nothing better than going into the body shop and testing all the perfume oils. Loved lemon verbena as a scent but not something you would wear. Like you I almost always went for white musk but on a night out might choose mostly musk. They don't sell it anymore but red musk smells very similar to me. Mostly musk was gorge but was of its time, in a stinky pub the scent was strong enough to filter through. I'm sure there was a third musk variety but can't remember the name.
I loved the smell of elnett hairspray but when I bought it a couple of years ago, like most other things they all just smell far more chemical than I remember

Anyone remember wearing body shop perfume oil on your neck and getting home from a night out, looking in the mirror and seeing a black crease where dirt in the atmosphere had accumulated? Hope it wasn't just me, but remember being horrified; the oil attracted it but the sprays have never smelt as good as the oil in glass bottles

Oooooh I'm like this, I'm far younger than a lot of you it would seem so can't relate to 70s/80s comparisons to now, but I can have such powerful flashbacks/wells of emotion from certain scents.

One of the ones sometime last year was the olive body butter from The Body Shop, reminded me so much of my (not late, despite the phrasing) mum ca. 2004.

Wish I could order older versions of shampoos and stuff too from somewhere. I'd order some Herbal Essences from ca. 2002-2006 and some Timotei with cucumber.

I'm visiting the UK soon, might have to splash out on Matey and Vosene and anything else that catches my eye. I don't have a bath, though, so I guess my sister can keep the Matey when I return...

What does bat poo smell of????

Can anyone else remember the smell of those thin single sheets of Christmas wrapping paper they sold in newsagents?

I've recently bought a Yankee candle called 'cosy by the fire' it's smells exactly like my Xmas as a child. I love it. Sort of a bonfirey,spicy, Xmas tree smell.

How it works:

Weird. The mention of Vosene made me smell it in my mind's nose, as it were.

My two children recently had a sickness bug and I bought dettol, and was immediately taken back to the school san, circa 1985.

Libraries still smell the same to me.

Terrific thread!
My Granny's bathroom always smelled very strongly of TCP. I don't know what the woman did with the stuff but even after she died and the place was empty for a while still the smell of undiluted TCP pervaded the entire place!
And Granny's shed - that smell! Kind of earthy, mothbally and fusty. I love that smell.
As a child of the 70's I remember Boots bringing out a whole range of cucumber scented shit which was highly innovative at the time - and even now the artificial smell of cucumber takes me right back to 1973, dark afternoons, glittery nail polish and Alvin Stardust. Happy days indeed!

I remember when my older sister started school she used to smell different when she came home. I can still smell it. Think it was paint.

Maybe in addition to less smoke etc, your nose gets less sensitive with age. I bet people's DC still think things smell...

Actually I chose my DC nursery based largely on the smell. It smelt cosy and of things like poster paint and baking. The posher one I visited smelt of detergent. We are past nursery days now but for 10 years I had DC coming home smelling of the nursery, it was lovely.

Bat poo smells... fusty and "animal" is the best description. Still in MIL's attic it might not just be the bat poo that smells, but all the other filth too!

Sorry I am being very rude about poor MIL... she's not that bad! I just struggle with her house.

I know the "man" smell. A mixture of sweat and grime I think. My dad worked in a filthy factory and used to come off a late shift smelling like it. I have a fond memory of this. The smell was even better if he had stopped for a pint on the way home. That smell is massively comforting to me because that's what I used to smell when my dad kissed my goodnight when I was little. My DP sometimes smells like this too. He's a fireman so when he comes home all sweaty and smoky it transports me back. Recently he was out on an incident for hours and was filthy. He came straight in and cracked a beer open and I was transported back to the age of about 8. Very comforting

My teenage years consisted of Charlie Red and Exclamation! And So.....? Ahem "perfumes".

I agree that places don't smell so much nowadays.

I can sometimes step outside and be instantly transpired back to childhood because it just smells like it. It's normally if I'm up and out early. It reminds me of getting up early to go on school trips.

Also some weather and atmospheric conditions also transport me back. It can be to something that isn't particularly memorable but I just remember. That probably makes me sound weird but then I am also convinced I can see electricity in the air.

And yes, Spain definitely smells different. If I was blindfolded and placed in a Spanish supermarket I would KNOW. They all smell the same. Our supermarkets (UK) do not have that smell.

I've just remembered another smell - Peaches and Cream bath stuff.