What did the 60’s smell like, in your experience?
Jean Nate and Old Spice.
And Brut!
By Faberge
Float like a butterfly Sting like a bee The great smell of Brut And the punch of Ali.
And Aquanet
Yes, sooo much....it's amazing we didn't catch fire as we puffed on cigarettes 🤭
Cigarettes patchouli oil and incense.
And for those who don't know, patchouli oil smells like the dust raised when you drive down a dirt road on a hot day.
I came here to say patchouli!
Exactly! I couldn’t describe it any better.
It was common for older cars to burn oil and spew smoke and fumes out of their exhaust pipes. Following a car like that and breathing in the smoke (no AC -- the windows were often open), I was never upset about pollution, but felt sorry for the guy because their upcoming repair bill.
Cigarette smoke was everywhere. It had not yet occurred to anybody to in any way question smokers' rights.
Many waterways stank of the raw sewage that drained into them.
Cotton poison. Steel mills. Chicken shit. Cigarettes.
I was young then, so a lot of time was spent in schools and other institutional-type buildings in London. There was a particular disinfectant/cleaner used everywhere, along with traces of cigarette smoke. Cars smelt and the only phrase I can think of for trains and the tube was "rotting electricity."
Cigarette smoke and car exhaust.
I’ll never forget the putrid smell of paper plants. I always wondered how people could live in those towns.
Nag Champa incense-Patchouli oil-marijuana
60s had little to no pot....but plenty of moth balls, cigarette smokers , and sweat due to no AC.
Hashish.
So many ashtrays. So. Many.
At least they were considerate enough to have them in the patients' hospital rooms.
Coppertone in the summer. Tigress perfume when I was riding a bus in DC. My Mom’s L’Air du Temps perfume. Chalk dust on a blackboard. Those little apple pies sold at the corner store.
cigarettes and moth balls
Plants and factories, like paper mills, stunk up whole towns. Locals excused the stench because it was "the smell of money."
Well, I lived ~10 blocks from Delaware River, along which were 2 major chemical plants & no EPA guidelines.
When the wind blew my way it was an ugly smell that you got used to.
Patchouli. Weed. Herbal Essence Shampoo.
Chantilly perfume. My mom’s, which was very sweet.
Herbal Essence for me. I loved that fragrance so much I wished it was for more than shampoo and conditioner (called crème rinse back then).
Very bad dope
Vanilla, which turned in to patchouli later
Patchouli, leather, dirty denim, grass.
On a sidenote... a friend of mine was obsessed with the 70s. He wanted to know what the 70s smelled like so he punctured a spacehopper and sniffed the escaping air. When I asked him what the 70s smelled like, he said "rubber".
Pot, cigarettes, patchouli, jasmine
Last week’s ashtray and stinking car exhaust.
Incense. My older siblings had it burning all the time.
Cigarettes, grease and oil and things burning… 😅
I grew up in a town with a Uniroyal plant and a sneaker factory. You cannot imagine what it smelled like.
Cigarettes, exhaust fumes..
Cigarettes, gas and diesel exhaust, city pork plant, steel plant, chemical plant, taste of city coal power plant, weed and BO.
Car exhaust Few cars had air conditioning so most car windows were open most of the time. To this day, if I’m near a street rod or vintage car the stink takes me back to the days, that every car reeked of a mis-tuned engine. On hot days in traffic as a kid it was so bad it made us want to vomit. I remember riding through the Baltimore harbor tunnel and traffic would slow down and we would on the verge of puking.
Stale cigarettes People smoked everywhere, stores, movie theaters, restaurants, etc, etc. So everywhere stunk. Several years ago I went to Las Vegas and the casino reeked of stale cigarettes just like everything did in the 1960’s.
Burning trash, lots of people burned their trash in a metal barrel behind the house in the evenings. There simply wasn’t any trash pick up most places.
Burning coal Lot’s of people still heated their homes with coal. I can remember playing football outside with the kids in the neighborhood and our lungs would feel scorched from the coal smoke from the houses on the street. Few people have smelled coal burn today and that’s a very good thing. Power plants that burn coal use scrubbers so you rarely ever smell them.
Out houses Lot’s of people still didn’t have indoor plumbing so they had a shed outside where they peed and pooped. They had a very distinct odor.
Body odor Deodorants were pretty lame compared to today. Many teenagers stunk like OB.
Roses Lot’s of people grew roses and I can remember how nice they smelled. Hardly anyone grows roses any more.
I don’t know where people got the idea the 60’s smelled like patchouli, just as many places smell like it today, which is not that many. Yes, some young people would burn patchouli incense.
Patchouli and weed
Pot
Patchuli.oil.
The 60s? Freshly mown grass, burning leaves and fresh tomatoes.
Not as bad as the 70's tasted.
Cigarettes and Hai Karate.
Weed and pines and the lake.
Cigarettes and leaded gasoline.
Hydrocarbons. Lots of hydrocarbons...
For me the smell from the tv and radio as the valves warmed up.
Thanks everyone! It’s surreal trying to paint a picture of an era I didn’t experience, and sense of smell is something so strongly tied to memory and therefore nostalgia, but can’t be fully portrayed in books or movies. I appreciate the feedback!
Pot. At concerts.
Incense and Peppermints ... the color of time (q.v.)
1967
Sorry, that's the first thing that came to mind.
For me it was my English Leather cologne and my gf's Wind Song. I found out later that I'm allergic to perfume. That explains the datenight headaches.
Hot vinyl (car interior) and cigarette smoke
Pot and patchouli oil.
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