What's your Proustian madeleine?

[BrightonCalling]

Simple things that hit your memory/nostalgia button?
Things that take me right back:

The smell of limes
Airplane trails at dawn or dusk
Hearing seagulls from in bed
Lawnmowers on summer days
A weird one: an open window with curtains gently flapping

The Archers theme tune. My parents always listened to it, another sound of my childhood

Also the shipping forecast.

Apples, there’s a sugar beet factory in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk that I believe still processes sugar beet! If you’re feeling nostalgic just go for a drive along the A14. Can’t stand the smell myself though!!
Mine are freshly cut hay and the smell of a country estate where the grass has been topped ready for a horse trial. Also the smell of sun cream, reminding me of wonderful holidays in the past.

@applesisapple5 yes there is; there's a sugar beet factory in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk!

The smell of bread being toasted over a coal fire - it takes me back 50 years in an instant and I can feel myself sitting at the table in my parents' living-room, waiting eagerly for that special tea-time treat.

Autumnal bonfire smoke, drifting on damp air over the allotments - whenever I catch a sniff, I can retrace every step of my afternoon journey home from school at the age of 9.

Cigar smoke - instantly evokes Christmas Day in the late 1960s, the only occasion that my dad ever had a small cigar instead of constant Golden Virginia roll-ups.

By a very roundabout route, I was given my paternal grandparents' family bible a few years back. When I opened it, the aroma of Golden Virginia rose out of the pages and all I could think of my was my grandad who died when I was 7.

Elderflower blossom, I'm back in the orchard of the house I grew up in.
I've also got a bottle of my grans perfume (Kiku) which I smell when I want to comfort/torture myself.
Pernod and I'm 18 again.

Salt and vinegar Hula Hoops take me back to a picnic at a neighbour's house when I was about three. I can still see their garden, and the picnic blanket on the ground with a radio on it.

Tiny yellow cardboard boxes of sultanas take me back to a party at playschool. I won one of those boxes and a pair of red plastic hair slides probably due to my habit of cheating at pass the parcel by hanging on to the parcel indefinitely

I love the smells of sunscreen, charcoal briquettes, seawater and plastic paddling pools. They all take me back to previous summers.

The burnt dust smell of the electric fire heating up. The smell and feel of dusty melted tar. The wind making ripples on puddles. White dog poo.

The Archers theme tune and BBC radio pips (grandma).
Orange sodium streetlight shining through curtains (childhood bedroom).
The sound and smell of coal fires (childhood home).
The sound of Lancaster bomber engines (my dad).
The scratchy sound of the stylus going round and round at the end of an LP immediately conjures up the scent of my teenage boyfriend.

Suspect I may be among the less posh on this thread

Oh my goodness, and ice-cream van chimes!

Rain falling onto our velux windows at nighttime. Takes me back to family camping and caravan holidays and feeling safe and cosy.

Fortunately for me this occurs quite frequently.

Pine trees, the sea and drains - holidays in Spain as a child.

The smell of aircraft fuel - the excitement of approaching Heathrow and knowing we were going on holiday.

Oranges and Woodbines - Christmas at my grandparents’ house with huge extended family.

I had a Starburst at work a few weeks ago and instantly was a child in the back of the car on the way to the local Tesco with my mum (it was an Opal Fruit then, obviously).

The smell of petrol and engine grease reminds me of my dad, it's what he smelled like when he got home from work (mechanic).

The taste of cream soda take me right back to summers at my grandparents house.

Creme brulee reminds me of my wedding day

The smell of warm canvas. It reminds me of camping as a kid.
That's definitely one of mine, too. Also, the drumming of relentless rain on canvas.

Patchouli oil. Takes me straight back to the days of cheesecloth, festivals and demos. I hardly ever come across it these days though.

The burnt dust smell of the electric fire heating up. The smell and feel of dusty melted tar. The wind making ripples on puddles. White dog poo.

Oh, I'm with you on those, toomuch! The electric fire one particularly.

Another one for me is a very specific sweaty horse / warm leather smell that takes me instantly back to childhood summers spent almost entirely on the back of a pony. Sounds a bit gross I imagine but to me it's heaven!

The sound of a wood pigeon cooing and monkey puzzle trees remind me of growing up. Also the smell of strawberries, pink and red coloured roses growing in gardens, the clinking is crockery from inside a house preparing a table for a meal, gingham table clothes and probably lots more!

The thing that reminds me the most of summers as a child is looking into a paddling pool that's been out too long with all the grass and stuff floating around. The shadows on the water are magical.

The smell of privet.

Petrol lawnmowers
That oil smell at a garage (step-dad was a mechanic and my sister and I used to play on the slope at the garage when he & my mam were talking)
Slightly stale beer
Baking bread
TCP

The smell of milk and honey Palmolive body wash.
Curlews calling.
The smell when you open my parent's shed - dust, metal, tar, wood.
The debut album of a Dutch band called Krezip.
Cream coloured old fashioned Agas.

The sound of a wood pigeon in the evening brings back memories of lying in bed, trying to get to sleep when it was still light outside.

The scent of pipe smoke takes me back to standing by my grandfather’s desk. He used to let me light the match.

The smell of linseed oil brings back the mix of dread and excitement of the last day of the holidays, oiling cricket bats and lax sticks.

The sound of a Cessna overhead always sends a thrill down my spine, even though it’s been 20 years since I jumped out of one.

The smell of chlorine, particularly in the showers after a swim
The rubber smell from hot water bottles

The smell of warm canvas. It reminds me of camping as a kid...Also, the drumming of relentless rain on canvas

And the smell of the crushed grass under the tent.