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It was the smell of him driving me to school

Posted by Robin on 22 January 2010 34 Comments

And when I used it for the first time, in my hotel room, I was almost knocked over by what I can only describe as a physical memory of my father. It was the smell of him driving me to school, and of him bending over to pull tight and tie the cord in the hood of my snow jacket, and of him fixing himself a drink in the pantry while he and my mother were waiting for dinner guests to arrive.

— David Owen writes about rediscovering his father's Old Spice in "The Dime Store Floor" (subtitled What did childhood smell like?) in this week's New Yorker. The article is not available online unless you're a subscriber, but you can access a short audio slideshow on their website (and Owen does discuss the Old Spice near the end). Many thanks to Jessica for the tip!

Filed Under: perfume in the news
Tagged With: old spice

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34 Comments

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  1. E says:
    22 January 2010 at 11:55 am

    Thank you for sharing that.

    I had a similar experience when I rediscovered Revlon Aquamarine shampoo in a Big Lots that I wandered into one summer when I was in college or law school…I don’t remember which. I saw it and recognized the bottle, even though I hadn’t seen or smelled it in at least 15 years. Opened it, smelled it…Dad.

    I bought ten bottles. I gave it to him and said “this is what you’re supposed to smell like.”

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    • Robin says:
      22 January 2010 at 12:14 pm

      Oh, how cool!! Did he use it?

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      • E says:
        22 January 2010 at 12:40 pm

        He did, and actually still does, ever since that summer (I’m 30 now).

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        • Robin says:
          22 January 2010 at 1:49 pm

          Wonderful. Props to your dad.

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  2. ami says:
    22 January 2010 at 12:37 pm

    similar happened to me with Malle’s en passant. when i smelled it for the first time it took me back to my childhood, to my grandmother’s house. she did not use this or similar scent, the whole memory of her was concentrated in en passant. first i started to cry then 2 minutes later smile. so good to feel her presence now any time i just want : )

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    • Robin says:
      22 January 2010 at 1:49 pm

      What a lovely story!

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  3. Robin R. says:
    22 January 2010 at 1:38 pm

    Mennen Skin Bracer = Dad

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    • Robin says:
      22 January 2010 at 1:49 pm

      Nice. You would like this article.

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  4. ajuarez says:
    22 January 2010 at 2:24 pm

    Old Spice mixed with Emerald (don’t know if it spelled right) was what my dad would put on, he dabbed a tiny drop of Emerald on his chin and along with Old Spice aftershave, that smell takes me back when I was a little girl in Colombia at 4 years old, I grew up thinking Emerald was a man cologne.

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    • zocalo1 says:
      22 January 2010 at 3:30 pm

      I think you are referring to Emeraude…a very nice scent!

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      • ajuarez says:
        24 January 2010 at 4:59 pm

        Thanks for spelling it Zocal01 pardon my spelling I have hard time writing in English somtimes.

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    • Robin says:
      22 January 2010 at 9:12 pm

      How cool!

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    • Winifrieda says:
      23 January 2010 at 4:51 pm

      Sounds like you got your perfumista genes from your Dad too! I’m sure I did, and he loved Old Spice,and guess what, I’m a spicey oriental gal …. he was a cattle breeder and thought everything was in the genes….

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      • ajuarez says:
        24 January 2010 at 5:13 pm

        That is true, my dad trained horses to be the best, and win in the races.

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  5. Joe says:
    22 January 2010 at 2:42 pm

    What a nice paragraph. Hope I’ll see the whole article at some point.

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    • Robin says:
      22 January 2010 at 9:13 pm

      To my mind, it’s still the best magazine in the US. Buy a copy!

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  6. Absolute Scentualist says:
    22 January 2010 at 4:10 pm

    I still adore Old Spice. Many of the men I admired, from my late father-in-law to my grandfather, wore it with class and warm reliability, amd I think it would be nice on a younger man as well. I know the phrase “____ smells like a grandmother or grandfather” gets tossed around when referring to many of the classics, but given my grandparents always smelled good, I think that’s not a bad thing. My grandmother took care of a farm and five children in her younger years, then managed a huge garden and helped my grandfather with the farm in her older years. She gardened, cooked, did the wash and always had time to find me a treat and give me a sweet, floral-scented hug in all the chaos. I can only hope to be half as talented when I’m in my grandmotherly years. ;)

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    • E says:
      22 January 2010 at 6:55 pm

      Old Spice is wonderful on younger men. I don’t have any older men in my life that I associate with the scent of Old Spice — I just never knew anyone who wore it while I was growing up, odd as that sounds — and for years, without fail, every time I told a (young) man that he smelled wonderful, he told me he was wearing Old Spice. I have radar for the stuff, apparently!

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      • ajuarez says:
        24 January 2010 at 5:08 pm

        I was brought up to never leave home with out fragrance, at sometimes (more than once) I remember wearing Old Spice to elementry school, and I’m a girl!

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    • Robin says:
      22 January 2010 at 9:13 pm

      It’s a really wonderful scent, even in its current formulation.

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  7. SmokeyToes says:
    22 January 2010 at 5:44 pm

    My dad was a teacher, so during school season, getting ready in the morning was the smell of coffee, Old Spice, pencil shavings and old books.
    In the summer, when school was out, he would plant a veggie garden and work on the flower beds. He’d smell like rich loamy earth, fresh mown lawn and tomato leaves. Just heavenly!

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    • Robin says:
      22 January 2010 at 9:13 pm

      Nice!

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  8. lilydale aka Natalie says:
    22 January 2010 at 11:35 pm

    Hey, me too! Old Spice plus a Chapstick (the original, medicinal-tasting kind) kiss = being dropped off at grade school by my father.

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    • Robin says:
      23 January 2010 at 6:18 pm

      :-)

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  9. Tama says:
    23 January 2010 at 12:10 am

    Old Spice + ciggies + Zippo lighter fluid (still love that smell) + beer = Grandpa. I have some after-shave (need cologne) and it is one of my faves for bedtime.

    Sometimes I smell things that remind me of someone, but I’m not sure who – some lady that swept me up as a child, or someone who comforted me, or a family friend.

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    • Robin says:
      23 January 2010 at 6:19 pm

      yes, I get those unidentified smell memories too!

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  10. CynthiaW says:
    23 January 2010 at 8:36 am

    My grandpa always smelled like Old Spice and pipe tobacco – the pipe tobacco smell in Back to Black is the main reason that I fell in love with it; it smells exactly like my memories of my grandpa’s pipe.

    My grandma was Emeraude and Youth Dew – the first time that I smelled Youth Dew again, I almost cried. Now, it’s the scent that I’m most likely to wear to bed – especially if it’s been a rough day and I need to be comforted. Until recently, the scent of grandma’s Emeraude eluded me, but I received a lovely sample of vintage Emeraude in a swap and that really did make me cry when I sniffed it. Youth Dew was grandma’s “dress up” scent, but she wore Emeraude daily and it’s the scent I most associate with her.

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    • ami says:
      23 January 2010 at 2:54 pm

      yes, so good to feel them close again via scents. today i was pondering which scents will my daughter associate with me. i use a different one each day, since i’m still exploring this world. probably i should stick to 3-4. or maybe i sound not think about those days when i’m gone…

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      • ami says:
        23 January 2010 at 2:55 pm

        i mean i should not

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      • CynthiaW says:
        23 January 2010 at 7:33 pm

        I’ve thought about that, too – certainly nobody is going to associate me with a certain scent. Maybe 80s me, but certainly not 2010 me.

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        • Daisy says:
          24 January 2010 at 11:46 am

          I guess if we’re lucky it’ll go something like this: someone we know gets a waft of some delicious fragrance and they think “mmm, that smells really nice, you remember Cynthia? She always smelled so nice…”

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  11. HDS1963 says:
    24 January 2010 at 4:34 am

    I hate to poop this particular party, but I’ve never got the attraction of Old Spice. I revisited it recently and absolutely hated it. I liked the opening, but the drydown was awful and made me feel vaguely ill.

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    • Robin says:
      24 January 2010 at 12:14 pm

      Shame! It’s such a comforting smell to me.

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  12. TallulahRose says:
    26 January 2010 at 7:44 am

    Old Spice is my dad too.

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