Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/16/our-olfactory-heritage-resear.html
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May I suggest preserving the sent of low tide at the Jersey Shore, circa 1965…
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I got you fam:
CB I Hate Perfume’s Secret History series: “At the Beach 1966”:
The prime note in this scent is Coppertone 1967 blended with a new accord I created especially for this perfume – North Atlantic. The base of the scent contains a bit of Wet Sand, Seashell, Driftwood and just a hint of Boardwalk. The effect when you wear At The Beach 1966 is as if you’ve been swimming all day in the ocean. Imagine it’s about 4 o’clock on a golden summer afternoon and you’ve been at the beach all day rubbing yourself with Coppertone suntan lotion – but Coppertone as it existed in the 60’s, not quite as it is now… You walk into the surf as the waves break on the shore and, bending down to touch the surf, you notice the smell of your warm skin and of the salt water that seems so cold by comparison. It has just the faintest hint of watermelon rind!
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I’ve often worried that some of the most distinct smells from my childhood, which I haven’t come across again in years, have been retired due to them coming from toxic compounds. Things like some paint pigments are seared into my memory. Or those giant markers in paint-can solvent.
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I have a memory from very early childhood of what I believe to be the scent of banana bread, but the banana bread that I’ve smelt as an adult is not the same. I have come to believe that it is the smell of banana bread made from the Gros Michel banana which is virtually extinct now, but was the banana of choice until the late 1950’s - early 1960’s.
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Huh, interesting. Though apparently the distinctive smell of the banana actually comes from fermentation during ripening - i.e. it’s the yeast, not the fruit itself, that provides the aroma compounds. (So if it is a change in the smell of the banana, it might not be the variety, but changes to the ripening process or yeast strains involved…)
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Lots of smells from art class are likely to be gone for that reason. I can’t imagine anyone reproducing the smell of Bestine or lacquer thinner, both known carcinogens. Other smells, like a coal-fired furnace or the scent of burning sugar cane for harvesting, are also likely to disappear.
The smell of form-feed computer printer paper was almost perfume-like; it must have been the lignin slowly turning to vanillin.
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Does that mean there’s a plan to dig up the bodies still there?
(Papsan. You have changed. No more Groucho?)
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had to log in on google, dang BB login was wonky…
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Dang! 
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oh, could be the new macbook air, just had an issue login with another site…
finally ditched my macbook pro 2012, it was moving at a snails pace in neutral , truly a night and day difference…
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Mm. When Trump is out of office, I’ll modify my avatar. It’ll not show the ⊥ absurdum/falsum symbol. Oh… for that happy day!
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Looki at his avatar! Obviously…
He’s going the distance
He’s going for speed
She’s all alone (all alone)
All alone in her time of need 
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Needs more “likes”
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Who knows why? I only know that I’ve never been able to recapture that particular aroma.
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Gwyneth is already on top of the problem
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Im amused by all the ocean references. There’s a time travel story where the first thing someone from the future wants to do, is swim naked in the sea. And when someone from the present asks them what their open water is like, they get pretty secretive.
At the rate we’re going, it won’t be a fiction story all that much longer…
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The smell of the ink from copy machines was very distinctive. I can’t remember what we called them, but wikipedia says they might be called “ditto machines”.
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It is a work of fart.
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