This happened to me recently (you’ll have to click to find out what I’m talking about). But instead of headaches and nausea, the smell induced nostalgia. I guess its just one of those things that should have grossed me out, but instead, it did something different. I opened up the package and the smell automatically brought me back to a memory from my childhood.

To me, it smelled like one of those lame vinyl Halloween costumes that you could buy at a drug store or something. You know the ones (I think that you have to be at least a Gen X’er to remember these); they had a plastic mask with eye-holes cut out and a rubber band to keep the mask in place, and a vinyl jumpsuit with your favorite cartoon hero’s logo emblazoned on the chest. I think they stopped selling those years ago because, firstly, the masks were not safe for kids (no peripheral vision), second, they ripped after about 3 minutes of trick-or-treating, and finally, probably most important from the average 5 year old’s astute economic perspective, the Chinese Textile Boom happened, so “real” material costumes got a whole lot cheaper.

After being so gleefully amused at the time warp I had just experienced, I asked my girlfriend what she thought the smell reminded her of. After assuring her this was no cruel joke about what I’d just done in the bathroom, she took a whiff said that it evoked memories of swimming toys like water-wings and pool rafts. It was a totally different time warp for her. She’d never even seen or heard of a vinyl Halloween costume. And she thought the whole idea of that type of costume was absurd. But she’s pretty much a Gen Y’er, so I tried not to show my age and make a big deal of it. Pretty cool how such a small thing like a funny smell can take you back 25 years in an instant.