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!
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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.”
Oh, how cool!! Did he use it?
He did, and actually still does, ever since that summer (I’m 30 now).
Wonderful. Props to your dad.
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 : )
What a lovely story!
Mennen Skin Bracer = Dad
Nice. You would like this article.
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.
I think you are referring to Emeraude…a very nice scent!
Thanks for spelling it Zocal01 pardon my spelling I have hard time writing in English somtimes.
How cool!
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….
That is true, my dad trained horses to be the best, and win in the races.
What a nice paragraph. Hope I’ll see the whole article at some point.
To my mind, it’s still the best magazine in the US. Buy a copy!
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.
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!
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!
It’s a really wonderful scent, even in its current formulation.
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!
Nice!
Hey, me too! Old Spice plus a Chapstick (the original, medicinal-tasting kind) kiss = being dropped off at grade school by my father.
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.
yes, I get those unidentified smell memories too!
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.
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…
i mean i should not
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.
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…”
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.
Shame! It’s such a comforting smell to me.
Old Spice is my dad too.