Walk into an old hardware store and take a big whiff. Come on now, just tip that head, sniff those fumes, and bring back a big brainful of love and memories with these gems:
• Hot, rubbery tires. Chinese chemical plants, hot vials of liquid rubber, and the musty stench of ocean liner storage bays combine to form this mind-altering buzz. And when you cruise on by, don’t forget to grab a free massage by rubbing your hand across all those tiny plastic hairy bits sticking off the tires in all directions. A classic.
• Those tightly packed piles of soil. Flopped sideways and drooping in all directions, don’t these bags always look like they’re about to burst at the seams? Well, I guess the problem is that some of them do, leaking their sweet smelling brown-with-white-flecks dirtload all over the floor.
• The key-cutting machine. If your hardware store is lucky enough to have a kid working away on a screaming key-cutting machine, then you’re probably sniffing in some hot, oily machine parts and a few metal scraps flying in all directions. Yes, that high-pitched piercing will wake up your baby and those smoky-metal fumes will wake up your childhood memories. Not a bad trade.
• Stacks of lumber. Decades of sun, water, and carbon dioxide help build tiny seedlings in the sod into majestic giants of the forest. Now even though they’re diced up into bits, they’re still breathing out those deep woody, sappy-fresh scents.
• Assorted old spills. Somebody kicked a can of paint thinner under Aisle 3 back in 1987 and now its faintly toxic aroma is just hanging limply in the air along with metal nail dust, shiny tools, and plastic snow shovels.
Yes, as you walk those old hardware aisles it’s hard not to soak in the memories. So when you leave the store on the creaking wooden floor, through the dusty, sunbeam rays shining lazily over the dirty black floormat, let that jingle-jangly door clang shut on your great Saturday morning sniff down memory lane.
AWESOME!
23 Comments
June 17, 2009 at 12:37 am
Definitely one of the most awesome smells in the world.
Sadly, these hardware stores are slowly dying out due to Lowe’s and Home Depot. But they’ll be old eventually…
June 17, 2009 at 12:42 am
The Canadian Tire smell. Also includes the smell of tents and soccer cleats.
June 17, 2009 at 1:08 am
The radio on in the background and paying in cash.
WD 40 and “For Sale” signs too.
June 17, 2009 at 6:56 am
I\’d put this up there with petrol as one of those smells that I couldn\’t possibly describe as nice, but there\’s something pleasing about them none the less.
June 17, 2009 at 7:31 am
MMMmmm….. hot oily machine parts…
My favorite are these tiny stores stuffed in the cracks and basements of NYC, and the fact that most of the time the stores are a mess but the old man behind the counter knows exactly where to find the little part you need.
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June 17, 2009 at 8:06 am
This makes me want to cry. In the past couple of years two local hardware stores went out of business. I knew where everything was! I used to just go and browse because there’s always something you need if you you look long enough.
June 17, 2009 at 9:14 am
How about going through the a-la-cart part? Where you can get bags of nails and screws by the pound? My boyfriend and I both remember going to hardware stores when we were younger and running our fingers through nails and screws of all shapes and sizes….
June 17, 2009 at 11:41 am
Right there with you on this one. I’ve often thought about owning an old hardware store for this exact reason.
June 17, 2009 at 1:28 pm
We have an old hardware store where I live: http://www.chicowiki.org/Collier_Hardware
Note the picture of the employee entrance. :)
June 17, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Our old one had a pop machine with cans for 50 cents, long after every other pop machine was bottles for $1.25.
June 17, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I love the people in those places…they truly make you feel like you are capable of doing it your self. Why are they always old though? And for some reason the tools they suggest you need for the job are never on they shelf. They just pull it out of the desk drawer and make the price up. Cheers to the awesome people in those old smelly hardware stores. Awesome 2x.
June 17, 2009 at 7:08 pm
What a great testosterone-filled entry to follow the shoes!
I absolutely love this smell. Along the same line is the smell of a feed store. Leather, grain, and sawdust. Awesome.
June 17, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I like the smell of the lumber.
June 17, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Sure beats the smell of Home Depot. But it’s really not the smell that’s so awesome. It’s the people. Who actually want to help you, not just collect a paycheck.
June 17, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Wow. Spot on with this one. Everytime I walk into a hardware store I realize just how aweseome the smell is! Awesome x10!
July 16, 2009 at 6:12 pm
[...] …or#742 The smell of an old hardware store [...]
January 13, 2010 at 10:20 am
Hardware store is nice, but what is nicer is second hand bookstores. Incredible smell of aged books, I lost track of time sometimes, browsing through old books and finding notes and writings in them.
January 26, 2010 at 12:05 am
the Canadian Tire smell…reminds me of my dad…he’s been gone for 35 years but every time I walk into a CT store I remember…and smile.
March 17, 2010 at 4:27 pm
My mom worked at an old hardware store when I was a kid. I used to sit on her lap and breathe in all the wonderful smells. She (and my fiance) now work at Lowes so I still get some hardware smell but nothing like the real deal
April 13, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Hard to find… but worth the search. The smell is unmistakeable.
The runner up is book stores and the library.
May 12, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Thanks for this. My dad owns a small quirky independent hardware store. He has such loyal customers and going into his store is always an adventure, he’s a mini celebrity in our small community. An Ace hardware moved like .5 mile from his store and he is putting them out of business. It smells amazing too, truly awesome.
June 12, 2010 at 7:51 pm
I remember tottering around after my father when I was little in shops like this. He’d spent half his time talking to the owner about whatever project he was doing at the time and discussing the best brand of paint while I shoved my hands into piles of wingnuts, screws and those plastic things you sometimes see in bricks.
Memories!
July 12, 2010 at 10:43 pm
Or just any old store. or an old barn.