Whilst mulling over which onions to buy in the local supermarket, someone walked passed me and their smell or should I say aroma transported me immediate back to my childhood.

The person in question was an elderly gentleman who obviously had been smoking cigars, as they have a very distinctive and slightly sweet aroma, but it wasn’t just the cigars, I swear he was wearing the exact same aftershave as Grandpa had done all those years ago.

Grandpa – Cecil Mitchell, as I remember him.

In one instance, in one inhalation of air I was momentarily in the presence of someone who had died thirty five years ago, and with it came all the memories of my childhood in the early 70’s. My grandparents had a three storey house in Woodville Gardens, Ealing, where they lived on the first and second floors and some of their 4 children lived in the flat on the ground floor.

I remember being taken to watch cricket at the club over the road on summer Sunday’s whilst waiting for Sunday lunch which was usually Nana’s fabulous curry with assorted dishes of pickles, desiccated coconut, and the like. After lunch Grandpa would sit in his favourite arm chair in their elegant but creatively styled lounge (Nana was an artist) and he would smoke a cigar before falling asleep, at which point the rest of the family would disappear into the the kitchen or the garden.

Sanderson ‘Arundel’ fabric 1960s

My sister and I still have the huge floor to ceiling curtains from their lounge – made from bright, bold and colourful 1960s Sanderson ‘Arundel’ fabric, reminiscent of a vibrant decade.

What sights, sounds and smells transport you back to your childhood?