It's been said that the sense most closely associated to memory is scent. I don't know if it's true for everyone, but it's certainly true for me.
In fact, one of the things I loved most about my partner was that he always smelled like the beach - a scent I have loved my whole life and always reminds me of being a kid collecting shells with my grandpa. My parents and grandmother worked a lot, so it was typically just he and I hanging out being the cool kids.
When he passed (penniless as he had always been - a refugee from Cuba who taught himself to read and write) he left me a big box of those shells. Opening the box, the first thing that hits you is that smell. Even a decade later, it's heavy in there.
I had no idea that when 5 year-old me handed my grandpa these that he was keeping them. All of them. They were important to him; cherished little treasures from his tiny partner in crime.
Those shells, and the scent of the beach, make me feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy. The memory still warms my tiny cold xennial heart.
Reddit user sunriseoverseas asked other users to talk about their favorite scents, and it looks like I'm not the only one out here chasing a childhood memory bloodhound style by following a scent.
The amount of adorable (and awkward, people love some really unusual scents lol) in here is kind of amazing.
Either Or
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That one smell that hits you randomly and your brain kicks into this "oh my that smell is the exact same as in fall 2004 when you where on your way to your friends yaddayadda" And you just stand there like......
Either that or coconut , calms me down.
Grandma's House
My first Christmas Eve with my husband's family we spent the night and the guest room smelled EXACTLY like my grandma's house. We lost her in 2006 and then my cousin let the house go into foreclosure so I hadn't smelled that in over a decade. I cried happy tears.
I take it as a sign that I picked the right guy :)
Smell The Savings
Payless shoe store. I'd walk in, sniff and leave. Cashier probably thought I was weird. I don't give a F what you think cashier. Yeah, maybe I am fckin weird. So what?!
A Firey Christmas
That smell when you blow out a match or a birthday candle.
- -eDgAR-
That's the smell of Christmas for me, specifically going to Christmas Eve service at church, then when it's ended and everyone is putting on their coat to go home because Christmas has officially begun and they wish each other happy Christmas, the church attendants begin blowing out the candles, and THAT smell for me is Christmas.
Fresh Water
Fresh rain. inhales deeply
Humans are hyper sensitive to it as a way to find fresh water. That's probably why we like it so much
Puppyfeet
My dog's paws. My wife thinks it's disgusting but I just like the way they smell!
You are not alone, friend. It's a Bugles/corn chip smell that is actually closer to pandan, if you've ever smelled that.
A lot of people sniff the dog paw.
Fun fact: it's caused by bacteria and when dogs dig their paws into the ground, they are doing so to transmit their odor.
Motocross
Ever since I was a kid I loved the smell of gasoline. Also if you've ever been to a motocross event, or like X Games etc with dirt bikes, the smell of motorbikes and dirt is borderline sexual.
Trying Not To Judge This One
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Urinal cake, because it reminds me of those primitive bathroom facilities that they have at campgrounds, which I associate with camping, which I enjoy.
Chlorine
Chlorine. Toward the end of my pregnancy I craved that scent so bad. I obviously didn't inhale it or anything but I remember sitting in the pool a few weeks before giving birth and the smell was so strong and sooo good. I told my husband about it and he thought I was weird AF.
Even now I love it.
Charlotte
Once a week on a Tuesday I work until 7pm so get a later bus and on the same bus was a girl who was travelling to the hospital for treatment for cancer. One evening we started talking and then for about 6 months we would sit next to each other and talk. We'd tell each other what music we were currently into or what book we were reading or what video game we were playing. She smelled of mangoes and strawberry. I ended up finding out where she got it and buying my daughter some for her birthday. (The body shop)
I haven't seen her on the bus now for 3 months. I hope she is okay but I don't think so as she had stage four lung cancer.
Every time I smell mangoes and Strawberries I think of Charlotte and her big smile when I introduced her to a new band or told her about a book.
Feels Because Of Felt
My grandma passed away the week I graduated high school, back in 2005. One of the things my dad gave me that belonged to her was a jewelry box...covered in seashells, but lined with felt. The first time I opened it, I immediately began to bawl. The felt lining had grabbed that perfect scent of grandma's house/perfume. I don't use the jewelry box at all. In fact, I keep it closed as often as possible. But a few times a year, especially when I'm missing her, I open the jewelry box just a crack, and stick my nose in there just to smell her again. And once a year, usually around the holidays, I take it to my parents' house so my dad can smell it and be flooded with memories of his mom.
15 years later, and it still smells like her.
No matter how hard anyone tries, sending naughty pictures over the internet or doing the nasty with someone you're not supposed to, could be witnessed by anyone just inconveniently stumbling upon the scene.
Curious to hear about accidental sightings of stealth happenings, Redditor PMForDickGraysonPics asked:
"What did you see that you definitely weren't supposed to see?"
Nudies
These Redditors happened upon some revealing images involving scantily-clad women.
What Mom Did
"One time I was up late at night scrolling Facebook at the same time as my drunk married mother who was an entire timezone away at the time. She was messaging an old fling from high school while her husband was away at work and was sending him close up pictures of her vagina. How I know this is because she didn't send them via messenger, SHE POSTED THEM ON HER ACTUAL FACEBOOK PAGE. I had to call her in the middle of the night in her zonked out stupor to get her password to delete pictures off her own Facebook page."
Retrospective Look
"Was fixing an elderly neighbor's laptop that had nudes of his wife on the desktop with the thumbnails at maximum size. It's like he wanted me to see them. I will say though, she had a bangin' bod for a woman in her 70s. I think it's safe to say he thought the same."
The Moaning Woman
"In my high school Spanish class, our teacher had taped (VHS) a telenovela for us to watch. When she put the VHS tape in, there was about .25 seconds of a porno that played...a topless woman moaning. Out of a class of around 30 kids, only about 5 of us looked around at each other and locked eyes with a 'did anyone else just see that?! look. Our teacher must have taped over an old porno VHS of hers."
Cheaters And Sex
Spotted: People seeking intimacy with people they aren't supposed to – or in one case, where they shouldn't.
No-So Clandestine Meeting
"Was working at a hotel during college and saw my lab partner get a room with the professor."
The Secret
"My dad gave me a piece of furniture one time. When I got it home, a post-it note which had been stuck to the bottom floated down to the floor. I picked it up, and in my dad's unmistakable handwriting were various notes about gay personal ads he'd been responding to -- details about the other guys. Their names and ages and sexual interests, the status of their conversations, etc. My dad was, at least I thought, very straight. I put two and two together and realized this piece of furniture was from an apartment he kept briefly while he and my stepmom were on the outs for about a year. None of this bothered me one bit, but I got the distinct impression that my stepmom (an older, very conservative lady) would have NOT been cool with any of this... I let him go to his grave without ever telling him."
Revealing Correspondence
"When I was still married, my (then) wife had left her phone on to run to the bathroom while I was in bed, I looked at it for the time, and found it was left open to a secret Gmail account she was using for sending literally hundreds of nudes back and forth between many many dudes. For years. Up to that night while she was fully 6 months pregnant. Mostly original stuff too. I think that hurt more."
Unfaithful Girlfriend
"The night I learned my ex gf was cheating, she just got up from the couch to kill a bug and left her phone face up on the couch with Snapchat open. The chat had a picture of her boobs and some sexting replies from the guy. My heart dropped down to my butt. Man, cheaters suck"
Nature Love
"I was hiking in a forest with some friends, and as we continued on the trail, the mound of rocks on our right side opened up to more forest. Myself and one of my friends were leading the other two by a couple of yards, and we both briefly saw a couple having sex several hundred feet into the forest on that right side. My friend and I gave each other that 'did you see that sh*t too?' look. By the time my other friends caught up the couple had split and we couldn't see them anymore. It was like 2pm in broad daylight off of a main road, which was the weirdest part."
Grim Sightings
The following Redditors shared the things they saw not involving nudity.
Eternal Slumber
"Bout 5 years old woke up to the snow finally starting to melt. Notice a girl 'asleep' in the garden. Went a told my dad, he took one look and told me to go play in my room. Turns out girl had been 'asleep' in our front garden for about 2 weeks buried and frozen under the snow."
Fatal Accident
"Saw a man crash his motorcycle into the back of a parked car. He flipped over the car hitting his head on the pavement and dying on scene. Firefighters showed up and sprayed his brains and blood down the storm drain. Later found out it was a girls father who I went to middle school with. I was 12."
Watery Grave
"Human bones in the bottom of a cenote in the yucatan of Mexico. Dad told me to stfu and not swim in that area anymore."
I didn't necessarily see it with my own eyes but I heard two of my friends going at it behind the backs of their respective significant others.
They probably thought I was passed out. News flash: I wasn't.
I, unfortunately, was sharing a room with them and another friend. He and I woke up to sounds moaning in the bed next to us, and I'm pretty sure our friend wasn't giving her a massage.
All my ladies will tell you... "Just be respectful!" How hard is that? Don't be handsy, and be able to read the room. And most of all? NO. Is no! It's literally that easy. Everybody likes to flirt. Flirting is fun. Let's see how...
The Tub
Happy Ice Cream GIF by GIPHY Studios OriginalsGiphyHe brought me a huge tub of my favorite ice cream flavor after hearing that I was having a bad day.
Kombat
When I was 10 I received a love letter from a boy. It contained a flower inside, and at the bottom of the letter he wrote some cheat codes for Mortal Kombat for me. He knew I was always playing that game on my Sega.
13 Years In
I'm British, and I came over to the States on a temporary work visa, to do "one" ski season with Vail Resorts. I was bartending at an on mountain restaurant, and a couple of snowboarders come in and start talking to me. It came up that I was only there for the season, then one of them says "I'll marry you so you can stay... but we have to go on a date first".
... we just celebrated our 13 year anniversary, and I'm still in Colorado.
Rotted Fruit
fruit of the loom GIF by NBAGiphy"Hey do you want to help me throw fruit at my friends?" - 16 year old boy at summer camp, holding a bunch of oranges, who wanted to meet me. I was also 16 at the time.
Years Later...
The third time we hung out I went to his house. We were both in grad school and were talking in his room but I was exhausted from school and my 2 jobs. I was sitting on his bed and fell asleep. When I woke up he had put a blanket on me and was playing beautifully on the piano. I was so embarrassed cause I had drooled all over his pillow and surprised that he was so kind about the drool and not creepy about me being passed out on his bed.
We've been married for almost 4 years now and been together 8.
Bonus fun fact, his brother didn't believe I existed and accused him of making it up till I met him a year later. I was his first real girlfriend at like 25.
Oh I am feeling butterflies. I thought love was dead. So far, I've been given hope. Love can be born with trust. Tell me more...
Thanks to the Migraine
I was in Chicago on business, got a horrible migraine, and had to cancel a meeting with a man I had met with (for work) the day before. I get really bad migraines, really, really bad. After it was over I had to get a bit of food and something to drink, but it was very late and there was no way I would survive any kind of car/cab ride.
He was the only person I knew in town, so I sent him a text to see if he knew of anything in my area that would be safe/open that late within walking distance. He drove 30 min across town in the middle of the night to walk me to a 24hr restaurant and buy me dinner. I've been with him for 11 years now.
the corny...
Was riding home with the friends group back in 2008. We stopped to drop off the one guy, and I got out to stretch. I mentioned that the stars were so much more visible up there in the mountains and he said, "Yeah, they're really pretty. Wish I had someone to watch em with."
I'm a sucker for corny guys. We got married the next year and are celebrating 12 years this June.
Happy Halloween
Hocus Pocus Wtf GIF by FreeformGiphyWe met at a Halloween house party and when I was going to leave he walked me to the room with all the coats which also happened to be a kids room and he asked me "what color crayon would you like to write your phone number with?" I married him. Celebrated 20 years.
The First
My first boyfriend came into the store where I was working and just straight up told me he had seen me through the window and needed to run home to clean up/put on something nice so he could come back and ask me on a date. It was super endearing :)
Edit to add: he didn't WATCH me through the window lol, just saw me in passing and wanted to ask me out.
This was well before dating apps where you basically had to ask in person. He was within my age range, nice smile and just had a good energy.
Also his secondary flirting technique worked just as well, he brought me a book on our second date because I had mentioned in passing that I loved to read :) he was good at making me feel heard.
Silence
deaf sign language GIFGiphyNot me but my mum. My mum and dad were set up by a friend of theirs.
My mum is completely deaf, upon being told this before he met her my dad went out and learnt as much sign language as he could before he met her.... my mum doesn't know sign language... adorable and hilarious.
Women are so much better at this. And there is a lot to learn in this thread. I hope y'all gents took some notes. Willing gestures speak far more volumes than money, attitude or status. If you like then put a ring on it!
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