The Smells Of Childhood

[Maggie/915]

I was reminded of childhood by the smell of Cold Tar soap.

Music can remind us of time and place, so can smells good and bad.

[Symptoms]

When pruning an elderberry tree in my garden it's pungent smell always sends me back to the 60s and a tree house we built in a big elder located in The Cut (waste land and allotments behind the Riggs) ... even after over 50 years!

[Canny lass]

I Think it was called COAL tar soap Maggie. I loved that smell! It had some very medicinal properties. We used to use coal tar soap , and paste, in the Health service for various skin complaints way back in the 60s.

 

Speaking of smells - does anybody remember 'donkey-stone'? A square block (roughly 5" by 5") of some sort of yellowish material, a bit like coarse chalk in consistency. It was used to 'decorate'  the front- and back door-step after scrubbing them Clean. You rubbed the stone against the wet Surface and it sort of rubbed off. I use the Word decorate loosely. It was more a question of drawing a border around the upper Surface of the step. Donkey-stone also had a wonderful smell, which I can't describe. There are some emulsion Paints that remind me of it.

[Maggie/915]

There is a debate about soap or gel.

The residue left by the soap is fat which can protect against various complaints.

For donkey stone I now use Ariel, it gets rid of the slippy moss on our stone steps!

It will also clean burnt/ on pans.

Small amount and boil.! Sounds like a recipe! Other soap powders are available.

The smell of wood smoke is a favourite of mine.

Burning leaves etc is a hobby.

I blame coal fires.

We should live in a forest or on a farm miles from anyone

[keith lockey]

FOUR SMELLS WITH ME.

 

1) The pages of musty old books takes me right back to the Station Library where I used to get my Hardy Boys books.

 

2) Fish and chips always reminds me of the Wallaw - we used to come out of there and go to Wales' chip shop for our supper.

 

3) Aniseed reminds me of the Domino / Lucy's where I used to drink Pernod.

 

4) Fresh cut grass always reminds me of a girl I fell in love with during the summer.

 

All these smells are like a time-tunnel to me.

Edited January 18, 2014 by keith lockey

[Canny lass]

That's interesting, what you say about your Donkey-stone substitute, Maggie. Was it for cleaning steps from moss? I thought it was purely for decorative purposes.

 

Keith, nice to see a member of the male species who admits to being romantic!

Edited January 18, 2014 by Canny lass

[Maggie/915]

Not sure Canny Lass but my guess is the smell gave it away!

Decorative with a purpose.

Apart from the Coronation the weather always seemed fine, maybe no moss grew in those far off days of old

[Canny lass]

Moss doesn't grow on a busy street Maggie! Just Think of all the people who used the step apart from the family (10 in mine):  the Ringtons man, the fishmonger, the greengrocer, the bread man, the swill collector, the coalman, the ticky man, the schoolboard man (on occasions) the vicar, the doctor, the milkman, the rag & bone man, the scissor grinder, the gipsies who sold clothes pegs, the meter reader (they were inside the house in those Days), and last but not least, the neighbours and playmates.

[Maggie/915]

Point taken, we need more visitors.

[ex Bedlingtonian]

My father was an engineer on oil tankers.  Can still remember (and love) the smell of them.

[Keith Scantlebury]

That's interesting, what you say about your Donkey-stone substitute, Maggie. Was it for cleaning steps from moss? I thought it was purely for decorative purposes.

 

Keith, nice to see a member of the male species who admits to being romantic!

 

 

FOUR SMELLS WITH ME.

 

1) The pages of musty old books takes me right back to the Station Library where I used to get my Hardy Boys books.

 

2) Fish and chips always reminds me of the Wallaw - we used to come out of there and go to Wales' chip shop for our supper.

 

3) Aniseed reminds me of the Domino / Lucy's where I used to drink Pernod.

 

4) Fresh cut grass always reminds me of a girl I fell in love with during the summer.

 

All these smells are like a time-tunnel to me.

Were you rolling around in the grass with your girlfriend ........ or was she eating it ??  . Maybe not so romantic after all Canny Lass !!!

Edited January 19, 2014 by keith

[Symptoms]

It was Wright's Coal Tar soap .. an amber, oval block.  You can still get it.

 

What about that damp, humid aroma that filled the house when clothes were being dried indoors.  It was OK to do this back in the day when houses were 'leaky' with drafts so were well ventilated;  shouldn't be done now when most of our homes are as 'tight as a fish's arse' as the humidity can't be vented.  (There's a post by KeithL elsewhere (Consumer section) ... mould on wall.)

[Canny lass]

Was that not Pears soap that was amber and oval? Was it kind of transparent?  Wright's is right though. However, I remember it as a Dirty beige/Brown opaque soap.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Was that not Pears soap that was amber and oval? Was it kind of transparent?  Wright's is right though. However, I remember it as a Dirty beige/Brown opaque soap.

Canny lass I would have backed Symptoms. I had to check, and I would have lost my bet:-

[keith lockey]

Were you rolling around in the grass with your girlfriend ........ or was she eating it ??  . Maybe not so romantic after all Canny Lass !!!

 

 

I often wondered about that cowbell around her neck! But she had lovely eyes and long eyelashes.

 

Here's another smell I remember - OXO Chipmunk crisps sold at Strakers at the Oval shops.

[Eileen]

Ah Keith Oxo chipmunk crisps I loved them, strange how you can forget something then when your reminded the taste and smell comes back. When out for a walk last night my hubby and I could smell a coal fire, it brought back memories of toasting bread on the coal fire.

[keith lockey]

Ah Keith Oxo chipmunk crisps I loved them, strange how you can forget something then when your reminded the taste and smell comes back. When out for a walk last night my hubby and I could smell a coal fire, it brought back memories of toasting bread on the coal fire.

 

The one smell I don't miss is the soot from those coal fires - after the chimney sweep had been. Then he'd bury it in the garden and you would dig it up months later and get the same smell!!!

[Vic Patterson]

Diferent soot smell standing on the railway bridge as the trail went under!

 

Gagging on the smell when passing "Fishy Harper's†wet fish shop at the top of Blyth market, but round the corner was the great smell of the pork pie shop!

[Maggie/915]

Morning smells of rice pudding and steak and kidney pie. A deep pie that needed something in the middle to keep the crust out of the gravy.

[Symptoms]

Since moving to my present house about four years ago I've lit a real fire every evening - paper, sticks, coal - and it really is an ovocative childhood wiff.  40 years living in London and I couldn't have coal fires because of their Clean Air Act so I'm making-up for it now.  I have the chimney sweep out annually and you're right about that lingering soot smell.  I got a log burning stove installed in my kitchen last year and what a lovely honk that makes when you get a niff of the smoke outside, oh, and the great exercise when I'm chopping the logs with my big axe but it does play havoc with my back.

 

The smell of my freshly picked tomatoes bring back memories of helping my Grandad pick his.

 

Got the Wright's name correct but the shape and colour wrong ... I'll put it down to brain shrinkage.

 

Found a YouTube film about Donkey Stones ... but you have to sit through a Star Wars intro but it's worth it:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H4ehofV4Eo

Edited January 20, 2014 by Symptoms

[Canny lass]

Thanks Eggy. Nice to know I'm not too senile yet.

Thanks Symptoms. Enjoyed the film. It brought back memories but in our house it was us kids who did the donkey stoning every Saturday.

[Maggie/915]

Loved the film Symptoms.