Generation Sniff

The other day I was reminiscing with a friend about the toys we used to play with in the 70s - 80s. One thing I noticed was that a lot of childhood toys/art supplies were scented.

The first toy we talked about was Strawberry Shortcake. I used to smell her constantly. Plus, I had a vanilla friend doll so I'd put each doll to a nostril and get a yummy scent combo.


Of course there were mimeographs. That delicious purple ink smell... If I had to use paste surrounded by mimeographs, I would have been in scent heaven.

Then there are these markers. I sniffed all scent out of the orange. I remember hating black.



The smell was so strong for Play-Doh, it gave my mother headaches but I loved it


And finally, we had scratch and sniff stickers


I don't know if a bunch of coke fiends developed kids toys when I was little or if as a child smell sense is so strong that any toy would deeply imprint itself on the memory. I gotta say, I think my generation had the most fragrant toys in history (unless I count Iron Age manure toys...)