INDEX	July 8, 2022
Scents and sensibility Today I passed a newsagents and smelt that old familiar odour of tobacco smoke wafting out of the door. How strange, I thought, that doesn't happen any more; those smoke emporiums are a thing of the past. You can buy cigarettes but they are kept under lock and key and you certainly can't smoke them in the shop premises. But it got me to thinking how many familiar odours were now a thing of the past. There used to be lots of tobacconists and one or two high street specialists who sold exotic tobaccos (no, not that kind). The posh ones always had a rich perfume: thick and almost edible. Then there were the pubs. In byegone days of just a few years ago when you passed an open pub door you were almost knocked over by the sour beer smell, almost vinegar. Chemical works used to smell of rotten eggs, or at least some did. Garages and car repair workshops had that distinct smell of a mixture of oil and petrol: two stroke. If you once owned a Jap motorbike you will know about that. Not so much today. Or is it my olfactory system? Perhaps it is all still there and I just can't identify it. But I doubt it. In the late Victorian era city dwellers often complained about street noises: the hurdy gurdy man, horse traffic and the attendant sweepers as well as the cries of the various tradesmen. Today, of course, this is all gone and we just have the constant whine of the infernal combustion engine. Makes you feel quite nostalgic for those noisy Victorian streets; and now perhaps we can miss the fragrances of a yesteryear that was not so long ago.
INDEX Posted by Jonathan Brind.		July 8, 2022