Of all our senses , the sense of smell might be the most evocative .
Indeed, just a whiff of something can bring on a sharp sense of nostalgia, bringing you right back to the first time you caught that scent. We can get weirdly fixated on certain smells , to the point that our olfactory preferences can reveal weird stuff about us .
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What we’re trying to say here is that you should appreciate your sense of smell, because it would really be unfortunate to lose it .
“The ‘good’ eraser.”
There were a few types of erasers back in the day: the showy, colorful ones that didn’t work, the boring but reliable pink ones, and then these fancy bad boys right here. You knew they were serious because they said “art” on them.
“I can smell this picture.”
Not everyone grew up near a Chuck E. Cheese, but most of us probably grew up near something similar. The smell is hard to capture: it was a combination of good smells like pizza and prizes mixed with bad smells like cleaning supplies and vomit.
“’90s Pizza Hut.”
Pizza Hut still reliably makes its signature deep-dish pizzas, but things have changed. Back in the day, going to Pizza Hut was an event. Remember those red plastic glasses or the fancy branded light fixtures? The Hut ain’t what it used to be.
“Who wanted nothing else for Christmas but this?”
The ’90s were the peak of gross-out toys like this, and possibly the peak of make-your-own toys. This set basically took the lightbulb oven from Easy Bake sets and made the whole playset more palatable to kids who loved gross stuff.
“Found this gem at a yard sale, and yes, it smells exactly like 1983.”
I don’t know what it was about the ’80s and ’90s that caused every brand to make a perfume or a cologne marketed towards kids. I don’t know how this specific perfume smells, but I can hazard a guess: like a Cabbage Patch doll’s plastic-y, slightly baby powder-ish head.
“Aged crayons in all of their glory.”
Do aged crayons smell any different from fresh crayons? I’d argue they do. Fresh crayons are a pleasant smell in their own right, but bust open a container of Crayolas from the ’80s for a true olfactory experience.
“Smells like art class.”
I hope these markers were totally safe, because I loved them so much as a kid that I’d basically spend all class huffing them. The black licorice scent wasn’t great, but the fruity scents were absolute fire.
“Playing in the hanging rugs, surrounded by that fresh rug smell while your parents shop for furniture.”
This captures a specific mood and reminds me that new carpets do indeed have their own smell. For a similar but different memory, how about hiding in the racks of clothes at an outlet store?
“The smell of a brand new baseball glove and breaking it in.”
Even if you only had a cheap glove, you probably remember burying your face in it to get that sweet leathery smell. Bonus points if you chewed off all the laces.
“Smells like the ’90s in here. Came across this treasure in my old teenage bedroom and gave it a spray.”
The perfumes and colognes of the ’80s and ’90s gave way to the body sprays of the late ’90s. Axe commercials led impressionable teenage boys to believe that body spray was all the game they needed.
“I can still smell that new pack smell.”
Even if you weren’t a Magic cards kind of person, there was probably some kind of collectible card smell that you remember. How about opening up a pack of baseball cards with the stick of bubblegum inside?
“The awful smell of these overhead projector pens.”
It wasn’t just the smell of the pens, it was also the smell of the overhead projector. It’s hard to describe — it just smelled ‘hot.’ I think it was a combination of noxious fumes from the markers with a hint of burning plastic and smoldering dust.
“I can smell the cheap coffee.”
You have to go pretty far back to remember restaurants with smoking sections, but they were most definitely a thing. Some places even made a fully walled-off area for smokers, making it look like they were in an aquarium.
“Remember these?”
Glade still makes sweet-smelling bathroom products to this day, of course, but here’s one that’s a little more specific. To me, Glade will always remind me of sharing a house with two friends who never picked up after themselves.
“I can smell this pic.”
I know that cars are more efficient and safer these days, but older cars had a certain je ne sais quoi to them. These plush seats were awesome, but what was even better was the wood-paneled station wagons with a seat facing backwards.
“Freshly shaved.”
The annoyance of pencils getting dull was always offset by the joy of sharpening them again. In fact, I think many of us over-sharpened our pencils just so we could get the sweet scent of fresh pencil shavings.
“I can smell this picture.”
When you combine lushly textured furniture with shag carpeting and cigarettes, you get a living room with a very distinct smell. Every house has a smell, of course, but it feels like houses had more of a smell back in the day. And this would have a slightly different tang if that furniture was covered in plastic.
“Can you smell the old books in my local library?”
Here’s one of those vintage smells that’s remained unchanged through the years — and if you’re feeling nostalgic, you can head down to your local library right now and take a whiff.
“The smell of opening a brand new can of Play-Doh.”
We’ll conclude things with a vintage smell that should be familiar to virtually everybody. You wouldn’t think that a simple modeling compound could pack such an olfactory punch, but it definitely did.
“My brother just got one of these. I love the smell.”
There are six-shooter caps and then there are these caps, and I think these ones are better. They’re far easier to smash with a hammer. Do they even make caps anymore?
