Odd childhood associations.

[Flyingcursor]

I heard this thing on the radio Sunday about odd childhood associations.

As an example I'll regale you all with one of mine.

When I was very very little I saw a guy in a wheelchair with a cast on his leg. At the same time my nose caught the miasmic scent of old grease from a nearby restaraunt ( I didn't figure that out til later).
In any event, I made the association that the stench had something to do with the guy in the cast. For a long time afterward if I saw a cast I would imagine I smelled that smell. And even now (today for example) when I smell the lingering aroma of old grease from a restaraunt I instantly see this guy in the wheelchair in my mind.

Who else has made odd associations as a child?

[emmline]

I can't think of any good and weird ones.
Boxwood, especially if combined with the scent of wet concrete walkways evokes my Grandmother's house in Tazewell, VA.
Cow paddies remind me of Tazewell too.

Razor burn reminds me of being at the beach.

Diesel smells at bus stations remind me of traveling in Europe, not that I did much of that.

"Jesse's Girl" by Rick Springfield reminds me of my roommate Ginny and I dancing around in the living room of our apartment in college.

But you're talking about things that are associated pretty much by accident. Can't think of any.

[cowtime]

my Grandmother's house in Tazewell, VA.

Just up the road from me.

The smell of milk always makes me think of my Grandmother. She kept a milk cow and churned and her hands smelled of milk from dipping out the butter. I do not like milk, never did, but I did love my Grandma.

[Scott McCallister]

The smell of carmel corn mixed with pipe tobacco means that it is Christmas time. Only because in the Mall near where I grew up, at a corner of one upper level landing, there was a tobacconist's shop, and directly below it was the KarmelKorn shop. We wouldn't usually have occaision to go to the mall unless we were shopping for Christmas presents, when we would usually stop at that corner to throw pennies into the huge fountain below us in front of the KarmelKorn store.

From time to time as we grew up we would pass by there and even in the dog-days of summer, it would be Chrismas for the 20 or so feet we would walk in front of the tobacconist's and get a mix of both aromas.

Now the KarmelKorn shop, the Tobacconist, and the fountain are all gone, not to grieve though, I bought my Lori's wedding rings in the Jewelrey store that is where the Tobacco used to be sold.

[beowulf573]

The smell/taste of drinking Sprite from a plastic cup reminds me of my great-grandmother, since that's how she would always serve it. As I was a wee lad at the time, the cup would cover my nose too increasing the smell.

[Jennie]

The "monster footprints" that I could see on my walls and ceiling when I went to bed were really from staring at the light bulb before my mom turned out the bedside lamp. I was so scared. I didn't figure out until my thirties that it was an optical trick.

I never knew what whiskey smelled like until I married someone who enjoys good Scotch. The first time he shared a bottle with someone at our house, I wondered how he had found exactly the same cologne that my Uncle Meredith used to wear...

[emmline]

I never knew what whiskey smelled like until I married someone who enjoys good Scotch. The first time he shared a bottle with someone at our house, I wondered how he had found exactly the same cologne that my Uncle Meredith used to wear...

the innocence of youth, huh?

[Nanohedron]

Caraway and onions. It evokes the East European cuisine and the sunny kitchen of my paternal grandmother, but despite the fond memories, I could never grow to love the smell. Anything but that combination.

Nothing emotional attached to it; just personal taste.

[missy]

The type of things you all are talking about are seriously looked at by those that make many, many household products. Soaps and cleaners really don't NEED to have a particular smell, but many people associate certain scents with "clean".

And, of course, the "smell" is the most important part of all food. I'm sure you all know the old "nothing tastes good when you have a cold". It's because you can't smell it - and those smells have strong association in the brain for not just the "taste" of the food, but the associations that come along with that scent (as any woman who's been pregnant can instantly tell you!).

[Jennie]

Caraway and onions makes me hungry! I think I need a corned beef and onion sandwich on dark rye.

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance (every weekday at 8:15 A.M.) makes me think of breasts, almost every time. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Corva, was a large woman. She was always in front of the classroom when we turned to face the flag, and I could never see exactly how she did it. But I always wondered, "Where will I put my hand when I say the pledge, ten years from now?"

Jennie

[brianormond]

-The flinty & sulfurous odors of freshly atomized rock/ash from the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980. We still smell it when road cuts or landslides expose the same ash we fled during the event. The ash makes a nice pottery glaze, and the forest to St. Helens' north blown to ground level from the explosion made a dandy XC ski area until regrowth grew up again.

[Redwolf]

The smell of tanbark takes me right back to 1974, when I was a volunteer at the Folklife Festival at Expo '74. That was a pivotal summer in my life...I have wonderful memories from it...so that smell immediately evokes warm fuzzy feelings.

The smell of lilacs take me back to my childhood, when I'd open my bedroom window on the first warm spring night so I could smell the lilacs outside. I used to lie there, enjoying that wonderful scent, and thinking of summer just around the corner.

As far as bad associations go...well, this is a sad one, but I had a roommate in college named "Amanda," and she had really terrible hygiene. To this day I associate that beautiful name with the smell of rank sweat.

Redwolf

[SteveK]

When I was really young I knew that you fire a gun. Therefore when I heard that someone was fired (from a job) I thought it meant they had been shot. It was particularly alamring when I thought I heard my mother say that my dad had fired someone. I'm not sure that's true, though.

My grandparents were all farmers and my grandmother K had an old fashioned kitchen which had a particular smell. She also had a kerosene fired stove. Long after my grandparents died I was driving my son to the airport in Indianapolis. The car started to overheat and I stopped at a little gas station by a river. I went inside and there was a kitchen just like my grandmother's. It had the same kind of stove and the whole place had the same smell. It really made the memories come flooding back.

[izzarina]

and those smells have strong association in the brain for not just the "taste" of the food, but the associations that come along with that scent (as any woman who's been pregnant can instantly tell you!).

When I am pregnant, things have more smell...at least to me. Things that don't usually bother me normally can make me physically ill upon smelling them when I am pregnant. I had my thyroid removed almost 5 years ago now (cancer); no one knew it but I was pregnant during the whole thing (no one had the foresight to do a pregnancy test...even given MY track record ). Anyway, there was this nurse that was really nice, very thorough and attentive, etc. I liked her, but whenever she came in, I almost tossed my cookies because of the laundry detergent that she used. And the smell filled the entire room (probably just to my nose, though), and so whenever she was in the room, it was like this struggle to keep from getting violently ill. I felt badly about it too, because I often wondered if she thought it was HER I didn't like...I couldn't really talk to her or be too pleasant because I was trying really hard to not get sick

I have no idea what kind of detergent she used to wash her clothing, but even now, when I smell that smell, it makes me really sick (even when I'm not pregnant ). Even the thought of it does (as I can affirm right now....yuck)

Edited to say, that was hardly a childhood thing Sorry about that. Missy's pregnancy statement threw me off course

[crookedtune]

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance (every weekday at 8:15 A.M.) makes me think of breasts, almost every time.

This was always a trigger for me, too. I was always puzzled by the line, "And to the republic, for Richard stands....". There was a kid named Richard in the class, but he wasn't the only one standing. Why didn't they ever mention my name?