Given that its a freezing cold Sunday here and snowing heavily and there is no footy I thought I would post this: I am in the middle of a bout of 'man flu' (streaming head cold), my nose and sinuses are blocked and I have completely lost my sense of taste and smell. So in the middle of what was probably a fine dinner last night I moaned that I couldn't enjoy it or the wine or coffee because of that. It occurred to me that smell and taste are different to the othere senses in that, If I close my eyes I can vividly recall colours scenes faces from memory. Likewise I can recall sounds e.g. like someone's voice, a steam train whistle or music. I can recall textures e.g. what it feels like to run my hand over a rough stone wall, a wool jumper, piece of silk fur or a metal obect. However, I cannot recall tastes of things in the same way. Now my wife argues she can, which makes either me or her weird (in my view) I know I am pretty odd in many ways (as I have often been told. I have always felt smells and tastes make me recall events and places from the past but not the other way round. How many of you would agree with my better half that it is possible to imagine a taste or smell from memory. Summat to ponder!
Taste doesn't really have the effect for me, smell sometimes does though I think the two senses are very interlinked, apparently. Colour is a strong one. I see colours sometimes and they'll remind me of, say, a toy car I had as a kid, or the colour of the sky in one if those paint by numbers sets I had. Just the sight of a shade of blue on someone's front door can bounce you back 50 years to a toy long since gone.
Smells bring back memories for me. Just had Bovril installed in our vending machine at work and the smell of it takes me right back to the West Stand in the 80s. Caught a whiff of an old dear's perfume in front of me in Morrisons, earlier, and it reminded me of some bird I rattled behind Whispers, back in the day.
I can remember knowing that something tastes nice but I can't really remember HOW it tastes. I mean I can tell you that it is bitter r sweet for example but I wouldn't be able to really describe the taste properly. It's almost as though my brain does know he how they taste but that doesn't seem to translate properly. When you imagine what someone looks like you can actually see them in your head, when you think of the sound of a bird you can actually hear it tweeting but when it comes to smell or taste for me at least my brain does remember but it doesn't translate to an actual feeling of imagining it. Almost like with sound and sight my brain conjures up a play in its head with the sound of sight on stage but for smell and taste it simply writes a letter and reads it iut
I'm in agreement with your Boss. For example, if ever I smell a recently creosoted fence, it always reminds me of childhood holidays on the South Shore holiday camp in Bridlington. The reason being that all the wooden chalets were creosoted for the Summer season.
A couple of years ago, whilst in 'Meadowhell' as I passed a girl I caught a whiff of a perfume that my first 'serious' girlfriend wore (I have forgotten what it was called as it was over 40 years ago). It took me back to those days and I was tempted to walk up to her and ask her what she was wearing. However I resisted the temptation as: a) it would have been a bit 'pervy' (a 60 year old man asking a girl less than half his age, whom she had never met what perfume she was wearing) and b) my wife who was with me at the time would have been less than impressed - to put it mildly -as to why I wanted to know and a couple of 'deaf and dumb' breakfasts would almost certainly have resulted. As you say... smells evoke memories. However, whilst I can describe the smell of the old Brewery stand - the smell of p*ss wafting up through the floor from all the people who took a leak at half time underneath it whilst changing ends - mingling with the smell of cigar / cigarette smoke and Bovril but I cannot actually recall the ACTUAL smell in my mind.
Hey, there's every chance. Plus she had a 20 odd year old lad with her, sporting a perm and a dodgy dress sense...
Yerbut - that is smell evoking memories. YOU smell something and you remember some event or place from the past related to it. She argues she can recall a smell from memory (not the same thing). For example - can you now sit down and actually recall the smell of creosote, 'cos I can't. even though I recognise it if I smell it .
I get your point now. The smell evokes the memory, but the memory can't evoke the smell. Maybe it's a bloke thing then, coz I agree with you.
Ah, I see what you mean. I've changed my mind now and agree with you. However, if I were ever to meet you and your wife, I'd immediately agree with her (due to my cowardly, self preservation stance!).
Yikes! My family escaped from that camp in the late 1960's! We were in danger from religious fundamentalists who practised their dark arts on the beach ('Sunshine Corner'). Kendray on sea!
I loved the place when I was little and had really fond memories of it. We paid a flying visit there a few years back and, sadly, it was looking run down and somewhat dilapidated. A disappointing reality check to my childhood.
Probably would be wise. SWMBO was a teacher for 37 years and constantly reminds me of the fact when she goes into 'teacher mode' especially if I have been adjudged (no appeals allowed - judge's decision final) to have 'cocked up' on something (which is 'often' seeing as teachers spend their working lives always being in the right). "Sorry" is most definitely the hardest word for most teachers (well my missus at least) although it trips readily off my tongue, saving a lot of grief so long as I can continue to fake sincerity.
I am extremely lucky to have the wonderful wife I do. She has no faults. And this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she regularly reads the board. Nothing at all.
Interesting one. I don’t have any difficulty in imagining a smell or a taste. Of course it’s not as intense as actually experiencing it. It’s quite a fine thing as well. Just did a mind test on oranges, lemons and grapefruit. Definitely different and spot on what the taste would be.
That is interesting. I did a brief trawl on the net but the only research I could find was about taste and odours triggering memories and emotions. Little to suggest the memory recall of taste and odour by itself. If you experience what my wife says she can , and one or two on here, like me can't it suggests that some people have parts of the brain wired differently. (I did once see something about some people who can actually taste colours or sounds which has been subject of research. Someone out there probably has a handle on this. In the meantime I am hoping my sense of taste is back before next Friday as my missus is taking me out for a meal for my B'day to a local place that does great antipasti and amazing fillet steaks from Fiorentina roasted on an open wood fire. Pointless if I can't taste anything !!
I lost my sense of smell for about a year a couple of years back. I don’t think I realised initially and it only dawned on me when I was at Glastonbury and those horrible long drop toilets didn’t stink at all. Was a bonus that weekend but food and drink didn’t quite taste the same for that year.
I had a taste from when I was about 2-3 years old, that I'd had on a piece of bread. When I was a bit older I asked my parents what if could be. They just mentioned the usual spreads, but I had had all they quoted, and new it wasn't any of them. Years later, staying at my uncles, I was offered peanut butter. That was the taste that I had remembered from some 20 years before.
Ah but the point of the OP is ... Can you recall the taste of peanut butter now, at this moment without actually having any to hand or eating any?