What are the definitive smells of the 70s?

[Phil Pascoe]

Oh, dear .......... I recognised a Tyrannosaurus Rex lyric. Showing my age.

 

[Recky33]

The smell of chipboard, I used to make 4x12 bass cabs in the early 70s out of it.

 

[Geoff_S]

Burning stubble.

I prefer a wet shave myself.

 

[Lazarus]

Poverty

yeah but we all stank the same so we never noticed usually

 

[throbscottle]

I was a kid back then, so smells of the '70's is largely synonymous with smells of childhood.
My Grandpa's home-grown and home cured pipe tobacco, and the leaves when he rolled them up to go in the cutter, smelt unlike the finished product. The smells of his workshop, oil, rust and sawdust. Freshly broken or chiselled sandstone. His home brewing. My grandmother's slightly eccentric cooking.
My other grandparents house where cooking would be smelt, very meat & two veg. British in the best of the worst way.
My parents coffee filter
Or those times when you'd smell you'd stepped in dog poo, wipe your shoe only to find you were wiping it in more dog poo.
Geraniums. My mother had great success propagating them. I think she was trying to raise an army.
Bread, baking in the oven.
The village tip on the edge of the woods where people dumped all kinds of junk on top of decades of cinders from the people before them, had a smell of it's own. Not rotten or anything, it just smelt like the tip. Many happy hours finding treasure there!
The gas-fire smell of my other other grandmother's cold little flat. Sometimes it would be an electric fire smell.
Candles - always handy for power cuts. The smell of their extinguishment when the lights came back on.
The Tandy shop, which smelt like magic!
Cafés smelt different to how they smell now.
The wood and leatherette and srbp and wax smell of a new radio.
Rosin cored solder. You can still get it, but it doesn't smell the same (I used some really old solder a while back so I know I'm not imagining it!)
Cow gum. H&S would have a fit if it was used in a school nowadays!

Hmmm... That's all I can think of for now.

 

[COWS]

My 1971 Goldtop. Smells and sounds like the 70's baby!

 

[Thingybob]

I was a kid back then, so smells of the '70's is largely synonymous with smells of childhood.
My Grandpa's home-grown and home cured pipe tobacco, and the leaves when he rolled them up to go in the cutter, smelt unlike the finished product. The smells of his workshop, oil, rust and sawdust. Freshly broken or chiselled sandstone. His home brewing. My grandmother's slightly eccentric cooking.
My other grandparents house where cooking would be smelt, very meat & two veg. British in the best of the worst way.
My parents coffee filter
Or those times when you'd smell you'd stepped in dog poo, wipe your shoe only to find you were wiping it in more dog poo.
Geraniums. My mother had great success propagating them. I think she was trying to raise an army.
Bread, baking in the oven.
The village tip on the edge of the woods where people dumped all kinds of junk on top of decades of cinders from the people before them, had a smell of it's own. Not rotten or anything, it just smelt like the tip. Many happy hours finding treasure there!
The gas-fire smell of my other other grandmother's cold little flat. Sometimes it would be an electric fire smell.
Candles - always handy for power cuts. The smell of their extinguishment when the lights came back on.
The Tandy shop, which smelt like magic!
Cafés smelt different to how they smell now.
The wood and leatherette and srbp and wax smell of a new radio.
Rosin cored solder. You can still get it, but it doesn't smell the same (I used some really old solder a while back so I know I'm not imagining it!)
Cow gum. H&S would have a fit if it was used in a school nowadays!

Hmmm... That's all I can think of for now.

Wow you had a busy childhood amassing all those smells but you were right

 

[mwinfrance]

You mean you can't get Cow Gum any more in the UK ?
How fallen have the once mighty become.

 

[Droogs]

yeah but at least the smell of poverty is making a massive comeback, I know people can smell me a mile off because of it lol

 

[Johnwa]

Bilston is the other side of Wolves about 6 miles away so it was a buzz (black country for bus) to wolves then train out to foreign parts, apparently they were still eating missionaries out there in the 60's so I rarely visited and yes I've had a few Wrekin ales back in my drinking days, possibly at Oakengates"town hall" or one of the Wellington drinking establishments. Happy memories!

 

[johnnyb]

my great great grandad was born at old park in Oakengates on 1820. never been.the family were estate workers. he had the unlikely name of Beriah Wallet!

 

[Stormin]

Brut, and gloss paint

 

[PhilipL]

Bedford brick works on a Sunday night. I spent a year in Bletchley and every Sinday night was the same. Why? Cleaning or emptying the kilns?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I remember Sinday nights well.

 

[PGlover]

Developer, stop bath, and fixer.
As my dad and I both worked at Kodak this was a common occurrence.

 

[MF1000]

Developer, stop bath, and fixer.
As my dad and I both worked at Kodak this was a common occurrence.

……..spent many an evening in my 20’s in the club darkroom printing my rally pics and some landscapes too

 

[evildrome]

for me Brut 33, Palma violet at my nans, the smell of Spangles as you opened the wrapper and boiling mince and onion

"boiling mince and onion"

Good one. I had forgotten about that.

 

[antifoul2020]

Chips cooked in whitecap

 

[worn thumbs]

Old thread getting revived? I remember afghan coats that smelled like a wet dog if the wearer had been out in the rain.The smell of stale beer and old smoke if you visited the pub early in the session.

 

[paulrbarnard]

Boiling tripe. A recurring nightmare. One of the best was lines oil and French polish in my granddads workshop.