Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Nov 4, 2004
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
Familiar Smells and Sounds
During my working life I have carried out many types of work in various places throughout the world. Now that I have the time to think back over them all there are still a few that I had totally forgotten about - and it was a familiar smell that brought one of those times back into my memory.
For example, there was a village fete this summer in out Local Park, and we had wandered across to see it along with three of our Grandchildren. There was a lot to see and the kids were all excited; we kept close by them as we made our way around. Then, suddenly, a familiar smell reached my nostrils that sent me straight into playback mode. It was the smell of the local Smithies furnace. He had brought along a portable one to show the people attended the old art of blacksmithing.
My mind went straight back to the days when I worked for a ship repair company in Aberdeen. I was taken on as the welding foreman as the company was branching out into the oil construction business at that time. I had spent many nightshifts working on ship repairs. Mostly they were fishing boats and the smell was strong to say the least!
Yet the smell that day at the fete, brought back a far better memory; it was the smell of the Smithies furnaces. The company employed around six of them in those days and I recall spending a few happy hours in the shop watching these craftsmen carry out their work. It was the best place to be on a cold winters night down in the dock area of Aberdeen. I often used to pop in and see them on my way back to the office after checking on the work crew on board the boats.
The first thing I used to notice was the smell of the burning metal as it reached that fine glow before the Smithy took it out from the furnace and started to shape it with his hammer. The sound of his hammer on the anvil while he cleared the debris from his hammer head was like a song in my ear and then, as I drew closer, I could feel the heat from the furnace and the smell would stay with me long after I had left. These men could make anything from steel. They were real craftsmen of their time and it's such a shame that they are now all gone.
Another smell I recognised from those days was the smell of the seaweed. It used to be stronger when the boats were taken out of the water and put into dry-dock so that the men could start scraping it off for the routine inspection. I remembered that same smell from the days when I was working off-shore on the oil rigs. After a severe storm the seaweed used to be thrown high up onto the support structure of the rig leaving it dangling as the waves, which were now only half the size, tried to reach it and bring it back.
A sound that took me back in time was the sound of the wind howling through the structure of a rig way out in the North Sea. It used to whistle and scream at you as it tried its best to carry you away with it. Just like in the days on the construction sites, when the wind would howl and cause the scaffolding we were on to sway back and fore as we worked high up on the structure in our small tents. They were not really tents; they were just plastic sheeting tied around the scaffolding to protect us and the joint we were welding, from the severe weather.
It was always warm inside these tents as all the welds had electric heating pads all around them to keep the temperature of the weld high. This meant that once we were inside the tent, it was so hot that we to remove our winter clothing and sometimes we just wore
our protective welding gear over our vests. In fact, a lot of us used to carry all our catering gear with us up to the job, so then we could spend the whole shift up there rather than having to climb down and walk all the way to the canteens in the winter weather for our breaks and meals.
In the early days you could tell the welders from the rest by the smell that came from them. We used to weld with the old stick electrode before all these automated processes came into style. They gave off a sweet smell that seemed to merge with the smell of burning metal, leaving a familiar odour. In the later years, when the wire drum style of welding became popular, we used to go home smelling like fire grates that had just been swept out. It was a horrible smell that we found hard to get rid of; even after showering it tended to linger upon us.
It is hard to explain how a smell can trigger off a memory the same way as a song or a picture does, yet it has this way of conjuring up a picture in your mind and you can actually smell the thought. Some were really fond memories, others we tend to forget, yet it is only the good ones we tend to hang on to. But then that is only human nature. Ask any one about their past and they will always tell you the good parts.
Then ask them what brings the memory of a certain time or event in their lives and no doubt they will say a song, a picture or a smell.
