The smell in Carson, CA

[OscarMadison]

Maybe I was lucky, but the Sharks' locker room wasn't that funky. And I was in the middle of a scrum with several armpits in my face. Being short sucks.

Somewhere in the ether is a picture of two reporters interviewing Pekka Rinne and my hand holding up a DVR somewhere near Rinne's collarbone.

 

[Spartan Squad]

Somewhere in the ether is a picture of two reporters interviewing Pekka Rinne and my hand holding up a DVR somewhere near Rinne's collarbone.

I think there is a similar picture of me standing in front of Brent Burns—who was wearing nothing but a towel—trying to hold up my recorder somewhere near his chin with several people using me as an arm rest.

But one of the funniest sites I remember was clicking on the TV and seeing the reporter scrum with Martin Jones and the only thing I could focus on was a pink iPhone encased in one of those liquid glitter cases right in front of Jones' face.

 

[Octave]

I was a mouth-breather in locker rooms. Players and staff thought I was one too, which was just fine.

 

[Woody Long]

When I was living down south and playing in a men's league, a former girlfriend who grew up down south and had never been exposed to hockey equipment before saw my glove and blocker and put them on. She took them off, and then minutes later, as I'm driving us to a restaurant for dinner, she asked, "What's that smell?"

"Your hands," I replied. She then sniffed her hands and almost turned green.

 

[Octave]

I have a bunch of sticks a family friend gave me a few weeks ago and every time I walk past them in that part of my house I catch the slightest unpleasant whiff.
Like deer urine for hunters.
To the garage, they went.

 

[Spartan Squad]

When I was living down south and playing in a men's league, a former girlfriend who grew up down south and had never been exposed to hockey equipment before saw my glove and blocker and put them on. She took them off, and then minutes later, as I'm driving us to a restaurant for dinner, she asked, "What's that smell?"

"Your hands," I replied. She then sniffed her hands and almost turned green.

I have a friend whose husband plays beer-league hockey (or at least he used to). She said that she opened his bag once with the good intention of putting stuff in the wash and said she was never making that mistake ever again.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

If we could weaponize that, no country would dare oppose us.

Why do you reckon Canada hasn’t been invaded since the War of 1812?

 

[Batman]

Those of us that lived in Trenton back in the day can probably recall the intoxicating aroma given off by the Champale malt liquor factory. After it was demolished I believe it was listed as a Superfund site.

Only slightly better was the football fieldhouse I once entered in rural Louisiana. It was a concrete block buildings, and it had been sealed up tight through a hot Southern summer -- with no air conditioning -- from the end of spring practice in May until that day I went there to do picture day at the beginning of August. When the coach opened it up it was about 130 degrees in there. Just walking in and out for a minute or two left you drenched in sweat. And, apparently, it hadn't been thoroughly cleaned before they locked it up for the summer, either. Just an awful stench you never entirely forget. How that entire team didn't have a MRSA outbreak is a medical miracle.

 

[dixiehack]

Before my time, Tuscaloosa had a bad reputation thanks to a big paper mill then in business.

My olfactory memories were much sweeter. There’s a Flowers Bakery bread factory a couple blocks south of campus. Used to love driving by that place.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I'm noseblind to paper mills. I'll note their smell and move on. I lived 30 miles from one and you could smell it when the wind blew right.

The stench from a landfill is much different. A town near me is booming even more than my own town, and it smells like ass because the county dump is next door.

 

[TigerVols]

I used to walk out of the Chattanooga Times newsroom around 1 am and inhale the wonderful whiff of the Moon Pies being baked in the factory across the parking lot.

For about maybe a week.

A month in, that sticky-sweet smell would turn my stomach, especially when it was damp out.

 

[swingline]

Was there a cotton candy stand in the parking lot?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

The aroma of Tacoma. Haven't been through there for a long time, so I don't know if that old bromide is true. There's also a sewage treatment lagoon west of Salem that can get awfully ripe.

On the positive side, very few things are as pleasurable as the smell of driving by a mint field. One of the surprise treats of the Willamette Valley.

My first real date with my now-wife was a Springsteen show at the Tacoma Dome. Between songs Bruce says “what the hell is wrong with this city, man? It smells! Last time I was here I got sick as a dog!”

 

[dixiehack]

I got curious about whether there were updates in Carson and found a story blaming “organic waste material drying out after being exposed during low tide.'' So is this just a California version of pluff mud?

 

[Spartan Squad]

Pluff mud? What nonsense are you Southerners cooking up now?

 

[wicked]

I used to walk out of the Chattanooga Times newsroom around 1 am and inhale the wonderful whiff of the Moon Pies being baked in the factory across the parking lot.

For about maybe a week.

A month in, that sticky-sweet smell would turn my stomach, especially when it was damp out.

Driving through Hershey isn’t as pleasant of an experience as you’d think.

 

[User 149557]

When I was in my teens, I woke up to the most wonderful smell one morning.

We had a factory that made Dum-Dum suckers in the town and a warehouse caught on fire.

A giant glob of melted Dum-Dum suckers is an amazing sight.

 

[User 11148]

Pluff mud? What nonsense are you Southerners cooking up now?

Very soft ... fluffy, one might say ... silty mud that lines tidal creeks, etc. It'll swallow your ass up if you step in it. There's a story, possibly apocryphal, involving some dude who sank up to his chest in it and they had to use a helicopter to pull him out. As they lifted him, the suction the mud created pulled his pants/trunks off, leaving him dangling in more than one way for the crowd (and the local TV crews) that had gathered.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Pluff mud? What nonsense are you Southerners cooking up now?

“Pluff mud can have a strong smell because it consists of once-living plants, animals, and algae decomposing. The process of decomposition generates the scent. Things like shrimp, grass, and other sea life break down to make the soft squishy muck. Most would describe the smell to be like rotten eggs because of the hydrogen sulfide released.”

http://anchorsupcarolina.com/what-is-pluff-mud/

It’s also known as “plough mud” because farmers used to use it to fertilize their fields.

I thought everywhere had something like that, and then I moved out of the South and found out differently.

 

[Justin_Rice]

Our favorite place to go on a river float, you have to be very particular about which side of the river when you want to stop and stretch your legs.

Yeah - that smooth bank over there on the right beneath the cow pasture? Step out of your kayak there and you'll probably be knee deep in mud. It's the worst.