Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The smell of a florist, the shop not the person.
A pine forest.
The dank smell of England, I've purchased jewelry and books from England and the smell arrived with the items.
The scent of a new doll, or a vinyl pool liner.
The smell a bathroom in a residential home near the ocean. Like bathrooms on Long Island, or California coastal towns.
The smell from an exhaust fan coming from a bar.
Ppl like smells that remind them of something good in their lives- usually during childhood, and it remind them of that time when they smell it again. I like burning leaves, a barn with horses (that a new smell for me- never had a childhood horse), a pine forest after the rain, the ozone during a thunder storm, baking bread or baking anything, bleach, the ocean, the forest, the warm, amber smell of a newborn lamb (also new), and brewing coffee. There's probably more but can't think of them now.
Sawdust, my Father had construction businesses, so I would smell this in the garage or backyard sometimes.
Chlorine from indoor pools: My family used to go on week end vacations to a hotel with an indoor pool
Fireplace smoke: Walking around my neighborhood as a kid,I'd smell smoke from fires
Skunk: Skunks sprayed a lot around where I grew up
I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
Ha!
But seriously, I share some of the preferences listed, e.g., sawdust, wood smoke...
Definitely not skunk.
I'm also very curious about the origins of our preferences, in general. Your explanation for "skunk" is not really an explanation. I smelled plenty of skunks as a kid, but never learned to like it. I'm inclined to think that some sort of positive or negative experiences in childhood in relation to particular smells, tastes, colors, etc. play some role, but there seem to be too many exceptions to the rule for this to be a complete theory. Infants have preferences that don't seem connected to any of their experiences, so some preferences seem to be genetic - or, at least, hard-wired for certain individuals from birth. Also, tastes can change over a lifetime. For most of my life I hated the taste and smell of coffee. In my late 50s I started to learn to like coffee. Now I love the smell of a freshly-opened can of coffee.
The development of more complex preferences, e.g., erotic interests, are also very interesting. I've not read this entire thread, so sorry if I've missed something. If anyone has suggestions for theories I might want to study, please let me know. At the moment my impression is that we really don't have any super-good theory for the development of preferences. I doubt that any single theory will cover all types of preferences. I suspect that psychologically complex preferences are probably covered by different mechanisms (and thus require different theories) than tastes, smells, etc.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,504 posts, read 80,969,130 times
Reputation: 57608
Quote:
Originally Posted by Special_Guest
TIRES, TIRES, TIRES! Like my mouth waters when I walk into a tire shop. I don't want to EAT them, but I take a HUGE breath.
Also, love new car smell and freshly opened tennis balls. I never noticed gasoline doesn't smell the same until someone mentioned it. I used to love the smell as a kid, I haven't even thought about it as an adult.
I love the smell of tires, too, in fact I don't mind the wait when getting a new set because I get to smell them for so long. I will often stop in the tire department when we go to Costco just to get a sniff. My favorite smell, though, is the aroma coming from a classic muscle car exhaust with the unburned gas from the inefficient carburetor mixed in. That reminds me of my youth, and 2002-06 when I had an El Camino SS. I work on the waterfront, and enjoy the smell at low tide coming from the exposed algae, barnacles, and rotting wood pilings.
the smell of my grandpa's pipe - smoky apple scent
i do like the smell of pipe too..
with all the cigarrette smokers demonized......not many pipe smokers left
id smoke one myself but id probly inhale it
i remember my great grandmother born in the latter 1800's saying her parents and grandparents always smelled like smoke or cows (barn smell) even the one room schoolhouses smelled like barns,,,(most raised there own cattle/pigs/chickens back in rural maine) they loved to bake as often as they could ..... for the smell in the house
and not many complained because no one bathed often and these smells would cover up the natural body odors
When I was in elementary school, most of out handouts were printed on mimeograph paper. We called them "ditto sheets" - the ink had a smell that I can remember to this day. I wasn't the only one to like it - when the teacher would say "take one and pass it down" - everyone sniffed!
When I was in elementary school, most of out handouts were printed on mimeograph paper. We called them "ditto sheets" - the ink had a smell that I can remember to this day. I wasn't the only one to like it - when the teacher would say "take one and pass it down" - everyone sniffed!
when i was in elementary school, most of out handouts were printed on mimeograph paper. We called them "ditto sheets" - the ink had a smell that i can remember to this day. I wasn't the only one to like it - when the teacher would say "take one and pass it down" - everyone sniffed!
As a teenager, I spent a fair amount of in the railroad signal towers and train order offices from which movements and dispatching were controlled by a system of fixed signals and written orders. I was also privileged, when well into my forties, to work in one of a dwindling few for too short a time.
These were overwhelmingly masculine environments, characterized by the smells of petroleum (usually diesel oil) and smoke -- usually from cigarettes, but sometimes from the holdover effects of the long-gone age of steam power. There were distinctive sounds as well, particularly the constant buzz of a "long line" in need of fine-tuning.
And once upon a time, North America was home to over 6000 such places; we were down to about 1500 by 1965, then 200 thirty years later, and the number still in service today probably is fewer than the letters of the alphabet. Traffic control is handled from a handful of mega-centers, sometimes as much as 1500 miles away -- and insultingly sterile and micro-managed.
But the memories linger.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 01-09-2017 at 08:08 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Like my mouth waters when I walk into a tire shop. I don't want to EAT them, but I take a HUGE breath.
