Came back to my old college apartment complex and the hallways smelled EXACTLY the same after 12 years

I was in town for a wedding last month and drove past the old complex where I lived with my roommate Kevin during junior year. Place looked exactly the same. I swear the carpet in the hallway still had that weird mix of cheap cleaner and stale pizza smell. Kevin used to leave his protein shake blender bottles in the sink for like a week at a time. Anyone else go back to an old place and get hit with the exact same weird smell from back then?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_angela2d ago

Oh man, that's wild! I can't believe the smell stayed the same for twelve whole years. I went back to my dorm from freshman year once and the stairwell still had that exact weird musty basement smell mixed with someone's burnt popcorn. It was like stepping into a time machine or something. The cleaning crew must use the same products or maybe the building just absorbs that smell into the walls forever. It's crazy how a specific smell can bring back so many memories, good and bad.

drew6902d ago

@the_angela, do you think smell memories hit harder than song memories?

henry60417h ago

Oh man, I gotta say I don't really get the hype here. @drew690, are we really acting like a building smelling like cheap cleaner and stale pizza is some deep spiritual experience? I mean, it's probably just the same maintenance crew using the same products for a decade. Most apartment complexes smell like that, it's not exactly special. Idk, maybe it's just me but I feel like people romanticize stuff like this way too much. You're basically saying "hey, the janitor didn't change their floor wax" and calling it a memory trip. It's just a hallway, not a time capsule.