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It's heating up in Bodrum and my daily walks are getting warmer and warmer. As summer approaches, the late Spring scents are particularly strong in the morning and as I head down to the harbour, there is one particular aroma that sends my thoughts tumbling back to the 1970s. I pass an untended mandarin garden that is in full flower but its negligent owner has not bothered to collect all the fruit so there is a heady scent of blossom with an underlying hint of overripe citrus. It's a dead ringer for Aqua Manda, the ubiquitous whiff of my early teenage years. If I close my eyes, I'm 14 years old, in a Laura Ashley flowing dress with massive puff sleeves and a multitude of tiny buttons, trying to emulate a medieval damsel or Babs from Pan's People.
On the way back home I pass this fence full of wisteria which is another blast from the past as I was also a fan of Mary Quant's Wistaria perfume oil. I must have been older when I wore this as I had to take the train to London to stock up; Rugby being too provincial to sell Mary Quant.
My sense of smell seems to evoke much stronger memories than sight or sound and whip up a more intense feeling of nostalgia. I'd love to hear about the aromas that take you back to your youth.
One thing I have noticed Annie very recently that my sense of smell becomes stronger as I get older!..so strange! I walked past Konyaalti beach the other day and the smell coming from the sea and beach immediately took me back to a child of ten years old on holiday in a caravan in Weymouth! :)
ReplyDeleteCaravan holidays - what torture they were. The smell of bottled gas and uht milk take me back to the dreaded days of rainy UK caravanning.
DeleteGod love the Seventies, the decade that fashion forgot. Don't get me on the subject of loon pants, platform shoes and Brut 33!
ReplyDeleteI loved my long dresses. Not so sure about the blue velvet hot pants with bib and frilly white shirt.
DeleteThe flower scents have all changed since moving to the tropics...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the flowers and fragrances are much more exotic.
DeleteWith me, a whiff of patchouli will take me back, back, back to my early twenties in New York. No self-respecting hippie would have been caught dead without that scent.
ReplyDeletePatchouli is always coupled with damp afghan coats in my mind.
DeleteI also remember Mary Quant's Wisteria oil and it takes me back to my youth.
ReplyDeleteThe smell of freshly picked tomatoes from the garden (which we grew last year) remind me of my Dad, who loved growing them and lots of other vegetables.
My Gran grew tomatoes in her conservatory so the smell was very intense.
Deletechalk...when I smell it, I'm immediately back in my first grade class room! And Emeraude Cologne...the scent takes me back to my teen years and the first boys/men I dated!
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten about the all pervading smell of chalk in classrooms, probably because all through my daughter's education, there has only been board markers and computer screens.
DeleteFresh cut grass always reminds me of my childhood and having to mow the grass! :-) Freshly baked cinnamon rolls remind me of my grandma. I can still picture her in her gingham apron in the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI love the smell of cut grass, i very rarely smell it here and it doesn't have quite the same fragrance.
Delete. . Oh dear! What a reminder - my sense of smell has declined with age - along with a number of other 'senses'!
ReplyDeleteWhat about something strong like privet, I bet that reminds you of the UK
DeleteAcqua Manda - I'd forgotten all about it, being a sixties rather than a seventies teenager. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe scent of new-mown hay still whisks me back to childhood when we would help the local farmer with his unmechanised haymaking, before the days of balers. The look and scent of a Peace rose reminds me instantly of my mother's little front garden and her lovely rosebush.
I also love Peace roses; the scent of village garden.
DeleteJust seeing the Aqua Manda packaging had me remembering the smell....and the tiny print blue and white long floaty smocked nightie that I swore blind to my mother, was a dress, when I insisted on wearing it various parties. I think its the combination of the packaging image and the memory of the smell that has brought things back....4711, and the first grown up perfume anyone gave me... Estee Lauder's Youth Dew.... I wonder if they've changed the shape of the bottle...or even if you can still get it. J.
ReplyDeleteMy comment didn't reach you - I had the same problem with Ayak's blog yesterday too. I can't remember what I said, though I'm sure if it was a scent, I could remember instantly. I do remember Aqua Manda and was always over-drenched in patchouli oil though my mum wouldn't let me have an Afghan coat. I still want one now. Axxx
ReplyDelete