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

Log sheds
When I was a child there was an fly spray for horses and ponies called 'Extratail' which had a unique smell.
I asked for it in a saddler recently just to remind me of childhood but it s no longer made.

Windscreen wipers - I’m sitting in the back seat of my parents’ car en route to my grandmother’s house on a rainy day
The sweet smell of pipe tobacco - my lovely grandad magically producing coins from behind my ears

The smell of coal fires in the air during my childhood holidays in Ireland.

The smell of coal tar soap
Paul Simon songs on the car radio while I snooze in the back
A particular radio tower on a hill near my parents' house

I'm feeling particularly maudlin tonight so this thread was perfect.

4711 Eau de Cologne

Drive through carwashes.

Feeling pleasantly scared inside the car while the rollers go slightly bonkers and seem about to consume us all.

Pipe tobacco reminds me of my Grampa x
Stale alcohol and tobacco reminds me of the ballroom on Brean Sands Pontins the next morning x

The sound of plovers on a summer’s day

Raw rhubarb picked from the ground, and peeled, the sharp taste

Wind screen wipers swishing, the dark plus tiredness

Hair gel, chocolate and orange juice plus car sickness (going to ballet)

The sound of laughing next door when you’re falling asleep

Wet wool smell

Icy fingers and jarring hockey sticks

The wind as you ride a bike

This is a lovely thread!

Another wood pigeon one - reminds me of early mornings on our annual seaside holidays where we stayed in a slightly musty-smelling holiday flat overlooking a gorgeous communal garden. Also the smell of dewy grass, and the feeling of walking barefoot over it.

My memories of my dad are all little glimpses, smells and sounds; he died when I was very small so I have few clear memories. I find him in the smells of wet Mackintosh, whisky and cigar smoke, the sounds of late night cricket matches on the TV, the feeling of scorching plastic car seat on the back of my legs and that sickly smell of old, hot car. And the sound of the local branch line train ('diddlede-dum, diddlede-dum').

Walking on very short dry grass that has been nibbled by rabbits. It has a sort of spongy feeling. Gorse bushes too.

The smell of my grans outside lav...it was nice honest! I think it was a block of disinfectant on a wire on the rim of the pan. And the clunk of an overhead cistern too.

The smell of church, wood and incense.

The smell of wild garlic takes me back to being a girl. Holding my dad's hand walking down a hill in a wood in Wales.

Pipe smoke and hair cream (brill?) remind me of my grandad

Two trees on a hill near my childhood home. They could be seen from miles, and i always knew I was nearly home when they came ont view.

The sound of a leather saddle being lifted and settled onto a horse’s back.

The scent of Aramis on a cashmere jersey.

The scent of fracas on hot skin.

The clink of ice cubes as they are carried in a pimms jug over the terrace step.

The smell of freshly baked bread reminds me of my Great Grannies bakery in Lakenheath.
A certain pipe tobacco, first time I smelled that after my Grandad died I stopped in the street and looked for him.
Tangerines and cigar smoke is a Christmas smell for me and reminds me of my Dad
The scent of one particular honeysuckle, I have some growing in my garden will always remind me of my childhood home, when life was simple and uncomplicated and before all the bad times arrived
Oh dear, I seem to have something in my eye.
Lovely thread

The smell of diesel reminds me of holidays on my uncle's farm in Australia.

Wicker furniture

Looking out on a lush, green garden on a rainy day

Hot air balloons

The sound of seagulls - reminds me of childhood holidays on the South Coast.

The deep chuff-chuff sound of large steam trains pulling out of a station - reminds me of the time, when I was about 3 or 4, when my father took me to the station to watch the trains coming and going.

The original Postman Pat theme tune - makes me feel slightly sick! I remember watching the first ever episode of Postman Pat with DS when I was newly pregnant with twins and felt so ill I could barely move without being sick.

Wet granite and good whisky.

Bracken, gorse and peat.

Creosote.

Imperial leather soap.

A cock crowing in the distance.

Harmony hairspray makes me think of being a teenager, I can still smell it
Corrie theme tune, my bedroom light had to be put out by the interval
Seagulls, childhood holiday memories
Match of the day music reminds me of my lovely late father
Autumn evenings remind me of dads bonfires
"Thank you for waking me this morning" hymn from my childhood in the 60's
Cigar smell reminds me of an uncle who died over 40 years ago
The snowman bit where he dances with the father christmases, my middle son and me used to dance around the lounge in that bit
Various pieces of favourite classical music take me back to playing in the school orchestra and having a mad crush on the trumpet player

The smell of wood shavings
The smell of Tweed perfume
The smell of cornflour chicken gravy.
The theme to Howards Way (it was summer and meant ham salad with hoe made coleslaw)
The theme to Poirot (winter and lamb roast dinner)
The smell of lilac (My Gran had a lilac tree in her garden)
Creosote
Old style Coke with the ring pulls. Today's smells different.
An artificial Christmas tree with old style gold lantern fairy lights in various colours and foil baubles (the ones where the foil was rolled into cones and had different colours inside)

*home made coleslaw, not hoe

Elnett hair spray
The wooden tongs my DM used to drag the wet clothes out of the twin tub into the spinner.
The smell of pagan perfume and sheepskin coat - my DM in the winter in the 1970s.
Pledge polish- the original.
Ten pence mix ups in a paper bag.
The smell of a padding pool and looking through the plastic sides.
Stiff cold white sheets in English guesthouses when sunburnt as a child because sun cream wasn't heard of !!!
Pears soap - the smell the look, the feel and even the box.
A ticking clock at bedtime.
Brown bread with lurpak butter and fresh greenhouse tomatoes with the sound of Wimbledon in the background takes me right back to my Grandmas house in the summer.
The carnation cream tin with the flower motif.
The wobbly feel and wobbly sound of a rubber hot water bottle.
Soap on a rope.
Waking up to the sound of the sea.
Thank you for a lovely thread.

place yes yes to the Christmas tree with the old fashioned lights

Fabulous thread!

For me,

The sound of a blackbird at dusk in summer. Reminds me of being a child playing out and coming in for bath and bed.

The smell of turps/wallpaper paste/paint on overalls. My dad was a painter and decorator.

The sight of a box of York fruits -my mums favourite which I bought her every year.

The smell of pipe tobacco. My grandad used to smoke a pipe. DP got a different oil for his vape recently and it smells just as I remember my grandads pipe. I could close my eyes and remember being in their front room watching Basil Brush on a Saturday tea time.

Fog that rolls in around dusk time and a warm marine layer that rolls in around dusk on the beach in California sometimes, it's like a warm fog.

The smell of old beer when you walk past a pub on a a warm day

Sunshine and puddles after a rain shower, reminds me of jumping in them in my red wellies as a child :)

Curling up with a good book by a window when it's pouring with rain outside - makes me long for a paper bag of everton mints or murray mints from the sweetshop that I'd have as a treat when I was a child.