Smells of the 1970s

Body on Tap shampoo.

Aquanet and Virginia Slims.

Right Guard spray, Emeraude by Coty, and lemon Pledge.

Paco Rabanne.

The old-school Colgate shaving cream in the red can. They changed the scent and it was never as good.

Sure deodorant and yellow Dial soap.

Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion and chlorine.

Play-doh.

I don't want to know which chemicals were used in this glop, but I can still recall its distinctive salty smell 40-odd years later.

Halston Z-14

Love's Baby Soft or Charlie for girls Stetson or English Leather for guys Weak-ass weed Mint or Cherry Chapstick Faberge Organics shampoo

Balls.

Sea Breeze astringent.

The bromine in the water at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Potpurri

Sandalwood incense

Well water

Gasoline. All 70s cars smelled like gasoline.

Yes, R18, and leaded gasoline smelled different too. Much more heady.

washing my hair in Lake Michigan with this

Testor's cement. I was such a nerd I actually used it for models instead of huffing.

Head shops

Polo

Homemade Rice Krispies treats.

bonne bell 10 0 6 face cleanser. Clearasil zit cream

Polo was not for everyone.

Charlie.

Vicks Vaporub. Ideally deployed in the little tray of a steam vaporizer.

Halston Z-14 was everywhere, and often overpowering.

Bain de Soleil in the metal tube. Smelt marvelous.

Adults smoking up a storm in the living room every time there was a gathering. Stale smoke and ashtrays when I was the first one up the following morning.

Noxzema.

Crisco, ass and the Hudson River.

The smell the moment of opening a new can of Pringle's.

Patchouli...Every. Where. Everywhere.

Jean Nate

Kingsford Charcoal briquettes burning in our hibachi grill

The dusty smell of the inside of our Volkswagen camper.

Paco Rabanne

Moth balls

Aramis

R38 -- how did you spread his little legs?

R18 Even worse was the odor of diesel.

Bloomingdale's Tyson's Corner (VA) main floor, which had a distinctive smell - I swear they must have circulated something through the air system - that resembled Aramis.

So refreshing!

🎵 Clairol Herbal Essence Shampoo 🎶

R43 and R44 beat me to it. Herbal Essence really smelled nice. It was an intensely green scent. I'm sure smelling it again would cause immediate flashback.

Man-sweat & polyester on the dance floor

Three of us at exactly the same time.

That was some good-smelling shampoo, no lie.

This

This

No-Pest Strips.

The first whiff when you opened a brand new box of Pro Keds.

Personally, I preferred to wait until the hot guy next door took his off before I took the whiff

Elmer's paste

School cafeteria rolls

Dad.

Can’t believe no one has mentioned poppers yet.

Coast Soap.

Riunite.

Ah yes, Clairol Herbal Essence shampoo...it had a heavenly scent was was this gorgeous emerald green color. They stopped making it. What the hell did they do that?

R58 Instead we got this:

Johnson’s Baby Shampoo

And I LOVED the scent of Shower to Shower body powder. So fresh!

And Ivory soap.

Coast is still very much available, I saw it at Walgreens. Yellow Coast has been discontinued.

Old Spice is still available too, though it's not longer in those cool ivory colored bottles with the grey plastic stoppers. As a graphic designer, I always notice the packaging on toiletries. Soap & Glory products have great packaging.

TICKLE deodorant.

Mr. Bubble.

ZEST is still around too, just with different packaging.

Here are two vintage 1970s bars being sold for $34.95 on eBay!

WHO buys this stuff? I assume prop houses who supply items for TV shows and films set in the 1970s or other eras? Or do collectors actually decorate their bathrooms with vintage toiletries?

Jiffy Pop. Always pregnant with tempting possibilities, but almost always stale tasting, with disappointingly small, chewy kernels. And burnt. Not that that ever deterred us from devouring the stuff.

The almond scent of Vidal Sassoon shampoo.

The cafés of Beirut and Tehran.

Irish Spring

Jergens.

Most of these scents are still around. Sure, Jergens has expanded their line, but the original almond cherry scene is still around.

Irish Spring can be found everywhere.

That doesn't mean they're not "Smells of the 70s."

If they are strongly associated with that era, they're smells of the 70s. No need to police people's memories.

Also, many of these smells are NOT the same as they were in the 70s. Formulas change, and companies don't always announce it.

Witch Hazel. We used it all the time.

I know it still exists, but does anyone still use it?

The smell of "copies" fresh from the rexograph machine, handed out by your teacher

Salems, cheap weed, and exhaust fumes.

The last much more pungently in Europe because: diesel.

Right-Guard deodorant. The old kind that killed cold sores

Witch hazel has had a resurgence in the skin care world.

Opium Perfume

The smell of new technology as you open the box containing the home version of the arcade video game, Pong. This smell excited the hormones of many geeks - including me.

R73, yes! We called that a mimeograph machine (pronounced mim-ee-o-graph), but the smell of those sheets has stayed with me. And they were always somehow a little damp/rubbery when freshly copied. It was probably some kind of volatile chemical that evaporated quickly. And probably was deadly toxic too, but whatever.

Lysol

Unabashed and unrestrained sex.

Dirty bookstores.

Pine-Sol.

The gunpowder smell from cap guns.

Pierre Cardin cologne,,,,,and the innocuous shape of the bottle it came in.

Off mosquito spray, nylon tents, tennis balls, bubblegum in baseball cards and popcorn from the Presto Air popper.

The glue used for AIRFIX plane models. I now know it’s toluene.

Dad didn't smell like Old Spice. He smelled like Vitalis.

At the barber or the club, all the combs were kept in a jar of blue water that was kind of listerinish.

Mercurochrome, after scraping your elbows and knees during a vigorous game of kickball at school.

That sickeningly sweet smell of that gritty fluoride toothpaste, when they'd make you brush your teeth at school. Oh, and those nasty purple tablets they gave you to chew to display the plaque on your teeth.

[quote]That doesn't mean they're not "Smells of the 70s." If they are strongly associated with that era, they're smells of the 70s. No need to police people's memories.Also, many of these smells are NOT the same as they were in the 70s. Formulas change, and companies don't always announce it.

I assumed this thread was about scents and products no longer available. Sue me. No one here is policing people's memories, don’t be absurd.

btw, due to new technology, most old scents can be easily replicated.

Here’s a weird one: Back in the 70s and early 80s when I’d go to the grocery store with my mom I would spend all my time at the open top freezer section smelling the cold air blowing to keep the food cold. I don’t know if it was Freon or some other chemical but it smelled heavenly to me and the coldness was so refreshing in always hot Texas. Never met anyone else who did this and even my family didn’t seem to smell whatever it was I was smelling when I made them try it. Now I rarely see that style of freezer so I can’t try it to see if the smell is the same.

Earth Oils strawberry musk. Every head shop and every Spencer’s gift store sold them from a large wooden rack

Irish Spring. And i still love it to this day because of my first real "love at first sight" moment. i don't use it anymore (it's pretty drying) but i love that smell still.

Pine-sol. i don't use it to clean with anymore and don't think it's all that clean, but it evokes a sense of order when i smell it.

Loves Baby Soft. i don't love the scent, just distinctness and was everywhere back then.

Opium...my parents were very much hippies (grew/smoke/sold pot, year round garden, no processed food, no saturday cartoons, etc) and didn't use deodorant but were professionals (of a sort) so needed not to stink. they used opium on their pits.

Sandalwood...incense, and i still like it. Not too much a hippie myself, but it's a very earthy scent i appreciate.

And bubble-yum. not a fan of chewing gum but everyone chewed it back then and you could smell it.

Purt or was it Perk, the shampoo and conditioner in one. It came in a green bottle.

The smell of cigarette smoke in the bathrooms at school when kids snuck a cigarette.

Wind Song perfume. It stays on my mind.

r94 Pert, close.

Jhirmack shampoo.

Kanon cologne.

Coppertone

Love's Baby Soft, which all the girls at my junior high school used.

Jovan Musk

Chanel for Men

That heady mixture of salt air, pine trees and fresh cum in the Meatrack.

Bain de Soleil...for the San Tropez tan.

Hai Karate

Teen Spirit

Farrah even had her own shampoo! A friend has a bottle of this shampoo on display in his bathroom.

SEA & SKI Suntan lotion

Earth Born Apricot shampoo

Jade East

Grass oil.

Health food store.

I don't know how to describe it, but in the 70s, health food stores tended to be compact places and they all had a certain smell. I loved that smell.

Aviation fuel on the flight deck of CVN69, the Dwight D. Eisenhower, a nuclear carrier.

It was known as the smell of freedom.

Brut

Chaz

Irish Spring soap doesn't have the same smell today that it had in the 1970s. It's a lot milder.

Bong water. As teens, we'd take the parents car to the drive in theater and pass the bong around. At some point in the evening, it usually ended up getting spilled, so we'd clean it up and spritz Ozium deodorizer all around. Remember Ozium?

The school cafeteria, which always seemed to smell like cold pizza no matter what was on the menu

Burning rubber

So many goods. You guys beat me to all my favorites.

Except the fragrance my very down to earth mother wore when she went out: Aliage

The smells of my parents getting ready for work in the morning: my father's pomade; my mother's Mum deodorant.

Barbitol, that was the blue water.

Coppertone, Hawaiian Tropic, Skin So Soft, Sour Apple Cologne (apple shaped bottle) Love's Fresh Lemon, Love's Baby Soft, Cherry Lip Potion, Dr Pepper Lip Smackers/

Emeraude and White Shoulders perfume = My two grandmas

"Green soap" used at my elementary school to kill germs on your abrasions.

Smog alerts, "snakes", little pills you lit on fire that grew a long ash, came in your box of Red Devil fireworks, sulphur smell of burnt fire works.

Pert shampoo made my head itch so bad I thought I had lice.

Binaca breath spray

Your parents let you take their car and smoke pot in it? Who were your parents? Keith Richards and Ozzy Osbourne?

Sweet Honesty perfume by Avon.

The scent of Benihana

These dusty-smelling things. I always liked that dusty smell so I ate them out of hand. The canned chow mein was a hard no, though.

These things

Safeguard soap, Irish Spring, and Zest. Zest did deliver on its promise of feeling residue-free.

Aromatics Elixir is still a powerhouse scent. And Givenchy Gentleman for us guys.

Tea Rose. A pleasant but rather overpowering scent, at least as overapplied by the girls in my high school.

Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific

Perfumer's Workshop was a small line of essential oils sold at Bloomingdale's. They were packaged in tiny brown bottles. I remember my female cousins and friends wore this line, the scents were unisex and amazing.

Razzles

Mercedes smell. Get into a car from that era and early 80s and you can still smell it. I don’t know if it’s the leather or plastic bits.

The senior guy's locker room

The smell of crabs. You could smell them, I swear.

The "vitamin/medicine" smell at the doctor's office from the drugs they dispensed.

The citrus from the orangeades and lemonades freshly squeezed at the real drug store with black and white checkered marbled floors.

Magic Markers

[quote] Also, many of these smells are NOT the same as they were in the 70s. Formulas change, and companies don't always announce it.

True; the Jergen's Lotion of today certainly does NOT smell like the bottle that sat on my mom's vanity all those years ago. Same with Noxema.

The smell of Vaseline and the Intensive Care cream, both of which I used when I first jacked off

Los Angeles before unleaded gasoline and low-emission vehicles took over. The smell would literally give me a headache.

The eye-stinging smell of the interior of a brand spanking new American car.

OP I was just googling “LP” thinking it must have been some microwaveable American snack food then realised what you were referring to. My first LP was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (or was that “Rumors”?).

God I feel old. But thanks for my laugh at my own expense!

Hot dogs prepackaged in the bun that you cooked in the microwave. A distinctive steamed bread and lightly porky smell would waft from the package when you opened it. My grandfather worked in a factory that had these in the break room dispensed from an automat type machine.

Running behind the mosquito spray truck Cherry Flavor Pop Rocks Rubber Cement that you brushed on Freshly peeled open Polaroid Tidy Bowl

Polaroids! Yes, R147.

Great thread. I remember Gee, You're Hair Smells Terrific! and Body on Tap. Actually, I still get these from Vermont Country Store.

Shampoo with PLACENTA in it.

Hospitals had an overpowering smell of alcohol everywhere. This stopped once they came up with individually packaged alcohol swabs. Before that, the alcohol was in big bottles and there were big jars of cotton balls next to the alcohol. Since they used to swab you with an alcohol- soaked cotton ball before giving yiou an injection, the smell of alcohol automatically brought needles into my mind.

I second the smell of a brand new album being unwrapped. I can still smell it.

My teenage crotch smell.

Yucca-Dew.

Helene Curtis shampoo with egg. This ad looks more 1960s, than 70s.

Why is that giant shampoo bottle cap on the model's head? 'Crown' you hair with a bottle cap? What a terrible ad.

Hawaiian Tropic. It would bring back memories of going to the beach.

I loved Razzles, R135! Also Chiclets jewel toned gum rectangles and these jaw breakers. I call smell them all right now.

Herbal Essence shampoo. Made your hair smell like a lawn.

Ban de Soleil (for the Saint Tropez tan)

cotton swimwear drying.

sweaty tainty cotton and rubber jockstraps

all colognes and perfumes with oakmoss, musk, civet, ambergris

The ozone-ish smell of a just-flashed flash cube.

NYC subways on a hot August afternoon. Words fail.

The smell of a freshly opened roll of film. Probably Tri-X Pan.

Not to mention the smell of trays of chemicals in the school darkroom. Dominated by the pungent, vinegary smell of the acetic acid in the stop bath.

Lamaur Apple Pectin Shampoo.

Robert Mapplethorpe. Always a whiff of something . . . brown . . . about him.

Coty Sweet Earth solid perfumes.

R166 Those look really cool, I'd like to try the grass, hay, and clover. R129 My partner buys those! He puts them in salads, or enjoys them on their own as a snack . The label is blue now.

Nixon stunk like a skunk but Trump is worse today.

R152, and the craziest thing is that imported albums (usually from the UK) smelled different from the ones made in the US. And, in my opinion, better.

My mom had a glass bottle of Jergens lotion, which had an attractive almond scent.

armpit phrenomes of thousands of shirtless boys discoing on a summer night in the west village

[quote]Ban de Soleil (for the Saint Tropez tan)

I already posted that. Does anyone read an entire DL thread before posting?

The original Ban de Soleil product had zero sunblock in it, it came in gel and an oil. The original versions probably caused a lot of skin cancers. This ad is definitely from a newer version out at the time,

R173 Where was that Ban De Soleil sold? Higher end stores? Drugstores?

Curious..

[quote]NYC subways on a hot August afternoon. Words fail.

The Lexington and 59th Street subway station always smelled like a combo of rotting cheese and vomit, it didn't matter what season it was, it always smelled terrible. While attending The High School of Art & Design, I endured that disgusting odor for four years.

That's Bain de Soleil, control queen r173. This tube is from when you used to use it, Grandpa.

R174, Ban De Soleil was sold at most drugstores and department stores. My mom used that crap, she's lucky she never got skin cancer.

Sorry, R173, I got excited when I thought of it and just blurted it out. It's mentioned twice before on the thread. Also, the original poster had it right with "bain" de soleil. Means sun bath.

Love this thread--bringing back happy memories.

[quote]I already posted that. Does anyone read an entire DL thread before posting?

Yes, we do. We repeat-post to piss you off.

R176, Grandpa? Hardly. I was a small child when my mom used that garbage product.

We are ALL going to get old, check out the Michelle Phillips thread, she was a gorgeous woman. Look at her now.

Ha, I was specifically thinking about the Lexington Avenue line and the especially the 59th Street Station when I wrote that, r175.

My stepdad married my mom when I was just 13. He always wore Royall Bay Rhum cologne. Even a whiff takes me back to that time.

My mom wore Opium perfume, an exotic scent even today, although the formula was changed back in the 90s.

My scent choice was Pierre Cardin cologne, in that distinctive bottle.

Herbal Essence shampoo reminds me of Christmas because there was always a bottle in the upstairs bathroom when I came home for the holidays.

For years, on autumn afternoons, all the dads in my neighborhood raked and burned their leaves. No one back then gave a thought about the impact on air quality. But to this day, nothing compares to the distinctive earthy quality of the smoke that rose from those driveway fires.

Years ago, Pantene wasn't a commercial drugstore brand, it was sold in department stores. The shampoo was packaged in small clear bottles with silver caps.

When Pantene was owned by the drug company Hoffman-LeRoche. they also produced a setting lotion. This was only sold at beauty supply stores. My sister was a hairdresser, she sworn by this stuff. Her clients with thin hair always raved about this product, it made their hair look so full.

[quote][R152], and the craziest thing is that imported albums (usually from the UK) smelled different from the ones made in the US. And, in my opinion, better.

Unfortunately, the outer sleeves on UK LPs were very flimsy, they didn't use heavy cardboard like US releases. But, the UK pressings were always better sounding than their US counterparts.

Dippity Do! I had three older female cousins, and they always had that at their house. I used to stick my fingers in it and slosh it around. It came in pink and green.

I loved the Dippity-Do jar design. Items back then had such cool graphics and packaging design. A lot of items were packaged in glass jars and bottles.

Alka-Seltzer tablets in glass bottles.

Whenever you would go to the outdoor swap meet, sandalwood would be burning in practically every aisle. It always made me think of hippies.

Avon perfumes. They had tiny sample lipsticks, like doll sized. They had a specific smell to them.

Wild Musk by Coty NYC before turning into Disneyland and gentrifying. Smelled like garbage, but it was something you got used to. Super Elastic Bubble Plastic Linoleum floors Lanyard at camp. Box stitch, cobra stitch, butterfly stitch et al Mr. Bubbles in your bath

R189 here. I should have hit enter after each smell.

Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum sticks.

I remember the smell of freshly "mimiographed" papers, way before photocopiers and computer laser printers (dot matrix with tractor holes) - smelled like nail polish remover and butter.....I used to get so excited when the teacher would pick me to run to the office to get copies of something she wanted to pass out in class - I would flip through the pages and smell them the whole way back to the room.

Flintstones vitamins.

Not smells specific to the 70s but two of my favorites already mentioned here were the smell of burning leaves in the autumn air when autumn was still autumn and the intoxicating smell of gasoline when my father brought us to the gas station. Life at its most intense when I was a boy. The thrill back then of being alive to that when so young, honestly more than the smells of food.

Naugahyde

Yes, R194. And when I was a child we used to spend summer holidays on an island in the Northeast. Rather than haul garbage to the mainland, the custom was for neighbors to get together and burn it periodically. Burning garbage (especially before everything was encased in plastic) had an oddly comforting smell. Every few years, some scent will catch my nose for a second or two and remind me suddenly of that smell. It's such a happy/sad feeling. Happy because of happy memories, sad because those people and those times are gone forever.

Famous Amos cookies when first came out before the the company was sold and the recipe was changed to be bland smelling and tasting.

There are plenty of smells and aromas today that bring me back to my childhood in the 1970s, for instance the smell of evergreen and other trees bring me back to my summers as a kid in the Adirondacks.

I'm sure it's been mentioned, but the smell of the handouts in school from the mimeograph machine

As for men's colognes:

English Leather

Pierre Cardin

Brut de Faberge

Canoe

Eau Sauvage

Stetson for Men

Shampoo:

Herbal Essence in a green bottle with the woman with the flowing blond hair

"Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific"

Deodorant:

Right Guard in an Aerosol Can

Brut roll-on

Mennen's Herbal Speedstick

Another smell I remember and one that still brings to memory is the smell of roasting chestnuts that wafted in the air on the city streets as you emerged from a department sore after shopping at Christmas (for me...Altman's on 34th St.)

Oh boy. I'd forgotten the roasting chestnut smell in midtown Manhattan.

Add to that the smell of REAL crusty pretzels, not this squishy crap they sell today, being roasted over charcoal on a pan lined with tin foil. And grabbed with tongs and put into wax paper for lucky mittened hands to grasp on a freezing day.

Plasticine.

Badedas- Green slimy bath gel. Rather nice actually. Can still buy it.

Inky smell of a new book or colour magazine. Sorry colour supplement.

Kosher-deli smell. There used to be Jewish delis all over Manhattan. They're virtually all gone now, and I don't quite understand why. We still have plenty of Jews, just not the delis.

What a great smell they had. Our local one was Mintz's (actual tagline: "I'm a princess -- I shop at Mintz's!). What a great smell when you walked in, especially on a winter day, with the rotisserie chickens, the kasha salads, the soups, and all. Nothing like it today.

I had three delis in my New York neighborhood...Jewish, Italian and German. I remember the delicious aromas. They're now all gone.

Is this what gentrification has done to neighborhoods? Closed essential family owned businesses? A few years ago, on the main shopping drag,, some asshole opened a $15 grilled cheese sandwich dump. Think it finally closed, who needs that garbage? I'd rather see another Dollar Tree open up than another over priced sandwich shop or a Starbucks.

One of the local diners was replaced by yet another ugly apartment building with absurd rents. Of course, the neighborhood is filling up with flyovers and obnoxious trust funders.

[quote] Famous Amos cookies when first came out before the the company was sold and the recipe was changed to be bland smelling and tasting.

My Famous Amos brush with greatness: as a kid, I was part of the Famous Amos test marketing. Several classes from my elementary school had a field trip to our local library, where Wally Amos himself gave a presentation talking about his new cookies. Everyone got a free bag (in a plastic baggie; they were baked fresh that morning), and Wally and the library came up with a great idea/promotion: every day for the next month, he would have batches of cookies dropped off at the library, and every kid would get a free bag of cookies for each written book report turned in (limit 2 per day). Kids probably checked out more books that month than they had their entire lives. Sure, most of us copied the blurb off the back of the book, but the librarian didn't seem to mind. I was tickled to see bags of Famous Amos cookies displayed at my local grocery and corner stores several months later.

And the above poster is right -- the original cookies were *much* better before the recipe change; they were some of the best cookies I ever tasted.

[quote]There are plenty of smells and aromas today that bring me back to my childhood in the 1970s, for instance the smell of evergreen and other trees bring me back to my summers as a kid in the Adirondacks.

The same with me; there was a flowering bush on the side of our home that sat right next to my bedroom window. On certain summer evenings, a slightly-sweet, flowery smell would creep into my room through the open window. I still remember that aroma, even though it's been nearly 40 years since I've experienced it.

Famous Amos, back in the original days, had a powerful buttery smell with an overtone of cocoa. It was quite a heady smell. And the crispy edges of the tiny cookies would just splinter when you bit into them, and then you'd hit a big, soft chocolate chip.

Now, they are like smaller, overpriced Chips Ahoys. No tempting smell, either. Add Amos' name to the hundreds of brands that have fallen to become cheap knockoffs of themselves in the last 40 years.

My friend's father was partly responsible for the change. Amos sold it to a supermarket chain.

The pink vomit absorbent they used to sprinkle on puke in the school. It smelled worse than the actual vomit.

Sawdust and beer.

Algemarin. I remember seeing this in the house back in the 70s and continued using it in the 80s. Clean scent, spells like you're at a European spa.

^^ smells....

burning leaves

Cheap pot leaves?

Bacos! They smelled like intense fatty bacon. My mom used to add them to peanut butter sandwiches. I can’t imagine eating them now but I loved them at the time.

Capt Crunch

Carnation Instant Breakfast. A powdery cocoa smell, made in our harvest gold kitchen

Carnation Instant Bkfast has been mentioned a number of times on this thread r213. Popular item it seems.

This is a weird one, but - noodles Romanoff. They were a regular side dish in our house. Does anyone even eat them anymore?

"Come as you are....to the Vitabath spa..."

The actual Vitabath ad.

All of them - but especially grape.

The smell and THE STING.

More smell, more stink

^sting, not stink dammit!

Here's another one that stung:

Richard Nixon’s armpit sweat

Florence Henderson‘s pussy squirtings into polyester panties

John Holmes’s dick cheese

Peter Allen‘s breath, which probably smelled like an even mixture of Vegemite and semen

The faint but distinct aroma of lemon Pledge every time Wayland Flowers and Madame performed

The set of [italic]Blazing Saddles[/italic] after the last take of the campfire scene

The dog shit Divine ate at the end of [italic]Pink Flamingos[/italic]

The smoke coming out of Angela Lansbury’s motorcycle in [italic]Bedknobs and Broomsticks[/italic] and the smog over the rest of Los Angeles County

The cocaine going up Helen Reddy’s husband’s nose

Archie Bunker’s beer belches

Shelley Winters’ farts

Dionne Warwick‘s cigarettes

Jimmy Carter‘s peanut breath

The smell of an open jar of peanut butter like the kind in the sandwiches Annette Funicello made in those Skippy commercials

The smell of cannabis and dirty pantyhose hanging like a cloud over the set of [italic]One Day at a Time[/italic]

The lycra in Bart Conner’s leotard

The deadly bowel movements made by Bruce Jenner after running

pHIsoHex soap Bonnie Bell Ten O Six astringent

Me like smell of freshly baked cookies from Mr. Hooper’s store. Me miss Mr. Hooper.

Baby aspirin. Specifically, St Joseph's baby aspirin.

Carob anything.

Sea Breeze...

OMG, thanks R227, I can smell it AND taste it!

Anyone remember the lemon scented dish detergent that was sent out in small sample bottles to consumers? The recipients assumed it was a new reconstituted lemon juice like RealLemon! The bottle didn't look like a typical bottle of dish detergent. A lot of morons got sick!

No, it wasn't AJAX. I remember they had a lemon scent dish liquid. Since the sample stunt backfired, the new lemon dish detergent never became popular.

Macrame jute

Black Snake fireworks.

Probably inhaled a LOT toxic fumes as a kid

Super Elastic Bubble plastic!

R233---Oh, hi.

Roses Roses hand lotion.

Shalimar.

Vintage was already a thing. I remember girls wearing very grown op Parisian perfume and ratty old glamour clothes. I was in HS and remember shopping for shark skin suits that smelled like old clothes, and having sharp 50s haircuts that you could only get at certain barbers and the smell of those barber shops and my brylcreem.

R237, Shalimar is still very much around. It's Guerlain's signature scent. I guess it was more popular in the '70s, though.

R202, Besides the rent issue, I think the children of the deli owners went to college, got professional or corporate jobs, and had no interest in taking over the family business. There are no new waves of Jewish, Italian and German immigrants to take their place. I really miss the Jewish deli that used to be in my neighborhood in suburban Philly. Where does one get a proper corned beef sandwich now? Or a knish?

Also, given the modern obsession with “eating healthy”, many people shy away from food like corned beef and pastrami. Still, it's a cuisine that's just begging to be revived.

Sun In hair lightener. I remember the lemon scent and how it did almost nothing to turn my reddish brown hair blonde!! lol

I remember those Ayds candies someone mentioned. If you ate one with some tea before a meal, you would eat less and lose weight. Ha, ha, I wasn't even overweight but so desperate to be perfect (at 13!) that I bought them. My dad, who paid for them, must have thought, "I gave life to an idiot!"

[quote][R202], Besides the rent issue, I think the children of the deli owners went to college, got professional or corporate jobs, and had no interest in taking over the family business. There are no new waves of Jewish, Italian and German immigrants to take their place. I really miss the Jewish deli that used to be in my neighborhood in suburban Philly. Where does one get a proper corned beef sandwich now? Or a knish? Also, given the modern obsession with “eating healthy”, many people shy away from food like corned beef and pastrami. Still, it's a cuisine that's just begging to be revived.

That's typical cop-out answer. How about not passing the business on to family, to simply sell certain essential businesses to new immigrants. Going by your logic, there wouldn't be anymore Chinese restaurants or Chinese take out places all over NYC and in other states.

My neighborhood now has only one shoe repair shop along the main shopping drag, there were four. This shoe repair shop was passed on to a nephew of the original owners, The nephew is now in his 70s, I also wonder what will become of this neighborhood institution. The owner has no children, so he won't be passing on his shoe repair business Logically, he should sell it to someone who knows the craft of shoe repair. And is definitely is a craft. This man is amazing, he can fix any shoe. He also fixes zippers on leather jackets and I see women bring in their handbags.

You can manage to get healthy food at delis, I stopped eating red meat and pork many years ago, I'd get a sliced turkey or chicken salad sandwich at the Jewish deli. Pickles aren't unhealthy. At the Italian deli, I'd buy imported tins of the sardine/sauce combo to make pasta con sarde. At the German deli, I'd buy their delicious German potato salad.

My Costco sells knishes as well a many others 'ethnic' foods. Guess it depends how diversified you neighborhood is? Thankfully, my neighbor has always been diversified and still is. Even though a lot of the new wave of immigrants are professionals, they still eat foods associated with their cultures. I can also buy vindaloo sauce at my local Costco. Hummus and guacamole have become mainstream foods.

R42, I said the children were not interested in the business and there are no Jewish/Italian/German immigrants to take the place of the children and take over the delis. In some places, there are Eastern European immigrants, but they open delis that sell their own specialties (unfortunately none near me).

There are plenty of Chinese immigrants who can take over a Chinese restaurant when the second generation has moved on to less demanding and more lucrative corporate and professional work. Not so with European delis.

I can get turkey and chicken salad sandwiches in lots of places. I can order preserved/canned foods on line. But there's nowhere to get a corned beef sandwich ... sad.

[quote] We still have plenty of Jews, just not the delis.

Unhealthy. The foods were fatty.

And there is only 1 Chinese restaurant left in my old NY neighborhood, R242. There used to be one on every corner. The current generation has no memory of tons of Chinese menus being left in the lobby or shoved under their door.

R244, are you including so-called Asian restaurants in that? Because in my suburban neighborhood, "Asian" and "pan-Asian" restaurants are everywhere. These places offer sushi and other Japanese specialties and familiar Thai specialties like pad thai, but most of their business comes from the Chinese side of the menu. That's the 21st century version of a Chinese restaurant, and they're as common and popular as ever around here.

There's only one self-described "Chinese" restaurant nearby - a greasy storefront place that hasn't changed in 25 years. (Probably longer, actually, it's just that I've only lived here 25 years.) I don't know how they stay in business, except that they're cheap.

[quote]I don't know how they stay in business

Money laundering?

[quote] Because in my suburban neighborhood, "Asian" and "pan-Asian" restaurants are everywhere

We’re talking about Chinese restaurants, answering this quote “Going by your logic, there wouldn't be anymore Chinese restaurants or Chinese take out places all over NYC and in other states..”

And I’m saying there is only 1 Chinese restaurant left in my NYC neighborhood (whereas there used to be one on every corner). We’re not not talking about “Asian” or “pan Asian,” restaurants & even if we were, there aren’t any of those in my NYC neighborhood that used to have a Chinese restaurant on every corner. .

Our neighbor had a giant buckeye tree. I loved the smell of cracking open fresh buckeyes every fall.

Pat Nixon's pussy.

Nivea Creme. My mom put some on every night before going to bed. Yes, I know the company that manufactures it is homophobic.

Camay soap

Ass and cum in the backroom.

[quote]And I’m saying there is only 1 Chinese restaurant left in my NYC neighborhood (whereas there used to be one on every corner). We’re not not talking about “Asian” or “pan Asian,” restaurants & even if we were, there aren’t any of those in my NYC neighborhood that used to have a Chinese restaurant on every corner. .

Could be because the rents are super high in your area? Manhattan, in particular, is getting ridiculous with their rents. A friend who has lived downtown since around 1979, her area is bordering on Little Italy, told me her local deli's rent went from $15,000 a month to $40,000, the owner had to close shop and this was way before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

There are many other reasons you might see Chinese restaurants closing, besides the owners children not wanting to continue in the family business. There are still many Chinese restaurants and Chinese take-out places in my neighborhood, in fact, one renovated their take-out place last Fall, they hired new cooks (one is Hispanic), the food is better than ever!

So your Chinese restaurants have Hispanic chefs. Much like non-chain pizza places in the 80s & 90s run by Arabs & Israelis before closing up.

my boyfriend who wore just a little bit of Lagerfeld, combined with my just a little bit of Eau Sauvage

[quote]So your Chinese restaurants have Hispanic chefs. Much like non-chain pizza places in the 80s & 90s run by Arabs & Israelis before closing up.

Just one Hispanic chef, the other two men are Chinese. The new owner of the Chinese take-out is a Black American, he also rents the smaller store next door, a former mom & pop drugstore, he's turned that into a ribs, and other types of meat, take-out restaurant. Both places are doing well.

Do you have to be a specific race or nationality to prepare food of a specific race or nationality? A relative's partner is Scottish, he's a chef at an Indian restaurant.

The owner of Chelsea Diner on Seventh between 14th and 15th, told me that the day St. Vincent's closed, he immediately lost one-third of his business. The next year his lease up and his landlord demanded to triple his rent and wouldn't negotiate. The immensely popular eatery closed and the property simply sat empty until a bar finally opened there last year.

What's with the laws that allow a landlord to keep a prime space in Manhattan vacant for 7 or 8 years without losing money?

R257---They do it for tax write offs.

The smell of napalm in the morning.

Korean greengrocers disappeared from Manhattan a long time ago & along with them, the affordable flower bouquets sold from the outdoor bleacher-type steps at the building front or corner by Mexicans. You could always grab a bouquet of flowers in your way to a party, or to meet a friend or because you forgot it’s Mother’s Day.

Magic Markers

Re: delis. Thank gawd Schaller & Weber survived the Second Avenue Subway construction. And not only that, it’s thriving.

It smells like my childhood, even though I didn’t grow up here. There’s one long Hungarian specialty bakery left; the meat market closed.

There’s a photo of the guys who used to run the shop a generation ago, and one of the counter guys must be his son. You can see the resemblance. Another son from the latest generation (third?) rebranded it a bit. Snazzy and jazzy but still retro. I did like the version from 20 years ago, but if it means more business for them and keeps them in business, I’ll take it.

I enjoy queueing up with the old folks who are still customers and still eat stuff like head cheese and sauerbraten. They are Old World polite and always dressed nicely. That’s the last of a generation right there.

Crayola crayons, the vinyl smell from Slicker notebook covers, fresh Ditto copies, Pam cooking spray, Super Elastic Bubble Plastic, the melting gobbledygook from Creepy Crawlers.

Noxzema

[quote]Running behind the mosquito spray truck Cherry Flavor Pop Rocks Rubber Cement that you brushed on Freshly peeled open Polaroid Tidy Bowl

I wish I could have done that.

vinyl raincoat. LouLou by Cacharel, an 80s perfume that smells like the 70s.

Man sweat and 100% cotton Grateful Dead t-shirts, with a touch of patchouli, and the hell with the dance floor.

Christmas tree spray-on "snow."

This shit:

This shit:

The Manhattan Lexington Avenue upstairs platform, what a stench! Decades later, it still reeks. It's an odd nauseating smell of rotting cheese and vomit. Guess the MTA bosses never thought it was important to get to the source of this rancid odor?

Bio Oil actually smells a lot like Bain de Soleil.