Do decades have proprietary smells?

[Jonathan Harms]

This is my fourth rehab and just this week, I am forming an opinion that different decades have different smells. And yes, this is anecdotal, but fun evidence! Behind a drawer in the dining room built-in, I found a sack of balloons with printing on them announcing a wedding date in 1985. So naturally I blew one up and it immediately brought me back to my childhood in the 80s. Yes, I’ve blown up contemporary balloons and not been hit with nostalgia. So my conclusion on the balloons is that in 1985 they made balloons with ingredients they don’t allow anymore and my 1985 balloon this weekend felt just like 1985. And now I’m sitting on the kitchen floor leaning against the cabinets typing this message. Peeling off the yellow tack paper that is highlighted with 1970s glittery gold fleur de lis symbols hits me with an entirely different olfactory sensation, it smelled like that dank and stale smell of an old house; you flippers know it and so do I! So with the balloon experience in hand, maybe that smell isn’t stale, rather it has kept it’s odor fidelity all these years! It’s just that technology and government regulations are creating an odor time capsule in old homes. Any BiggerPockets folks come to the same conclusion? What is your insight?