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Smell and taste are some pretty powerful memory cues, so I was wondering, what sorts of things prompt you to think back?

Whenever I smell photocopier (ozone?) I remember an afternoon my father trusted me to help him do filing at his job. I'd have been ten or so. I can even remember the room layout.

A certain solvent makes me think of stripping a giant miniature in a cooking bowl in my shower, back when I lived in a foreign language college.

Lemon sorbet makes me think of sitting at my grandma's table and her giving me a meal that she'd specifically asked what I'd like as a "special treat" (and she would try it too). Being a fairly simple teenager, I asked for store bought chicken dippers, and lemon ice cream.
At 70, she enjoyed both, which was a good memory.
It's bitter sweet (in more than one way) because within the year, she had died. So when we were clearing her apartment, my father handed me the tub out the freezer and a spoon, told me to go and eat it in the garden.

How's about you?

There is a certain smell that some of the sunscreen lotions have: not quite banana, not quote coconut, and I can't really pinpoint it. But I know it when I smell it.

Every time I smell it I go straight back to my childhood, spending my vacations with my grandparents at a beachside campground in Italy.

The odor of certain woods, although it's probably more the product used on them, bring me right back to when I was 8-10, taking the staircase at my school leading to the nun's housings, where I took my piano lessons.

Otherwise I have exploding head syndrome, and whenever I have a seizure, I'm always reminded of a specific time, a walk I was taking in a field during which I had another seizure. The thing is, I have 3-5 of those every year. Nothing about that walk was special, so why do I always come back to that one. I've completely forgotten almost every other, so...?

Crikey, that sounds unpleasant. :(

Funny you should mention wood, the smell of cut wood always reminds me of violins, and standing in my front room as a child. Even at hardware stores.

Petrol. Reminds me of the car being filled up before heading of on holiday or to days out when I was a nipper.

The smell of alphabet sweets do the same. A staple to keep me quiet!

My Godmother used to make Lemon Curd which I devoured by the tonne. I always remember her, more so, when the scent wafts over me.

Smell of simple christmas cookies. Takes me back when I was like 10 years old, eating cookies, listening to the S&M Metallica album, learning for school and building my Vampire army. Good times.

Lasercut mdf terrain:

Takes me back to when our house caught fire when I was 10. We all got out, pets included, and it was only the back room that was damaged (but it was a later addition to the house - no house structure was harmed, either).

That's about it.

When my wife gets her hair cut at the salon the smell of the salon brings back memories of my childhood. My grandmother owned a hair salon and my mother would drop us off there to be watched. Those hair dryer chairs were my brothers and I favorite since we pretended it was Darth Vader's chair that removed his helmet.

Listening to all the gossip at the salon my brothers and I knew just about everything going on in the city.

Every time I walk in to a portable toilet (portajohn) I immediately get transported back to the desert.

Every time I smell anything burning I'm suddenly standing next to a burn pit tossing in garbage.

Every time I see a garbage bag or debris on the side of the road my heart immediately starts pounding. Although it is not as crippling as it once was.

On a happier note every time I taste Shiner Bock I am instantly a teenager again and attending one of the local punk rock shows that used to frequent my home town.

Rhubarb pie. Not strawberry rhubarb, just rhubarb. My mom used to make it all the time because our neighbor had a giant bush of it that would grow outside his yard. UNTIL my mom found out he used dog poop to compost it

There's that marshy smell of death, decay, and saltwater that always takes me back to the mid-Atlantic shore.