The aroma of the bus. I have never been able to identify it. Plastic seats soaked in decayed human sweat, a definite metal acidity and stale smoke?
But at six o’clock in the unearthly hours of 1973, it was easy. Smoke, nicotine and any other poison the manufacturer’s harbour in a cigarette was our flavour of the day.
The top deck accommodated a blue haze of contaminant as we, like lemmings, were herded towards the factories. Embassy, Players No6 and Park Drive for us young bucks. Whereas the older blokes preferred their trusted Woodbines and Senior Service. No one on our bus could afford Peter Stuyvesant.
I know I post the strangest of things but it is a smell I cannot erase from my memory. An old automobile has the same smell, have you noticed? I firmly believe it has something to do with plastic seats.

Apart from anything else whilst I am editing this little novel of mine I am reliving those early days in Bradford. I actually programme Youtube to 1970’s UK Hits. Luckily I have nearly finished because The Brotherhood of Man and the New Seekers are starting to make my ears bleed, the skinheads are getting up my nose and I’m frustrated by how many bloody ‘That’s’ I have written in some chapters.
I was considering watching Saturday Night, Sunday Morning but I feel I am probably morose enough without the contribution of Albert Finney. Oh well, my break is over, back to editing and ‘the good old days’ of lino instead of carpet, ice on the inside of the windows and biscuits in an old Quality Street tin.
Take care my special friends (That’s ‘special’ as in loved not ‘special’ as in mentally delinquent. OMG see there is another that) xx
I think that most British cigarette brands weren’t sold in the USA, where I live. And vice versa. I smoked Winston cigarettes, mostly. As for Woodbine: I grew up in the suburbs of New York City. My family lived on Woodbine Road.
Neil S.
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Haha, that’s a road the old geezers would have loved 😉
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Exactly. I grew up in North Carolina and I’ve never heard of those brands. We had plenty of our own, here on Tobacco Road.
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Clyde McPhatter? 😂
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Damn. I had to look him up. He was from Hayti…interesting.
Tobacco Road is also a sports reference. N. C. State, UNC, Duke & Wake Forest are referred to as the Tobacco Road Universities.
Ever seen the movie Bull Durham? My significant other was living across the street when they were filming it.
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Yes, Kevin Costner? It was a while ago
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Yep.
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Are those of us who are mentally delinquent still loved too?
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But of course, I didn’t want to be accused of generalising 😘
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Whew, relief! 🤣
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🙏😘
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Evocative. We underestimate smells. Try the smell of goats and chickens, sweat and wood smoke. cigarettes, “mbanje” smoke and plastic seats and come ride on a Zimababwean bus! Keep in touch with your senses, Charlie.
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Don’t think I’ve had evocative before, provocative, probably lol. Oh! That sounds wonderful. I still have loads of your posts to read, which I can savour at my leisure. Thank you Pete 😉
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Just keep the senses in your novel, Charlie, even if it is in just one adjective/phrase. It works.
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Funny you should say that. Esther Newton, who is editing novel for me, pulled me up on that. But it always scares me to write it. It’s going back next week so fingers crossed.
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My Mum smoked Woodbines.
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But you were just a wee chap in the 1970’s Charlie!
I could almost imagine the smell of the bus, how that specific smell hits the inside of your nose. Far back, and towards the top.
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It certainly does, Angel 😉 Haha I was 15 in 1972 and catching 2 buses across Bradford at 06:30 to work in an Engineering Factory all day 😘
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You became a man earlier than most Charlie! In 1972 I think my favorite song was City of New Orleans. I was 10.
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Yes, you grew up faster in those days. Was that Arlo Guthrie or Steve Goodman? 😀😀
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Oh my goodness! You know of Steve Goodman!!!
I only knew pop radio back then so I’m sure it was Arlo.
We used to ride The Crescent 2 or 3 times a year to visit my grandparents in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and my dad would always sing that song to us. So for years I thought I was riding on The City of New Orleans.
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Oh! Brilliant, the song was covered by a few people including Willie Nelson but Arlo had the biggest hit. I only became aware of him as I thought he was a mate of Kris Kristofferson. But I knew the song won a Grammy. Some documentary I saw 2008/9?
That’s old DJ’s for you 😀 Love the memory of your dad. Keep safe Angel, 😘
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Oops, rushing there memory of your grandparents 😏xx
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Steve Goodman wrote it and sang it in a country form but, Arlo & Willie had the biggest hits.
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Just hope someone here knows “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mothers!”
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😄
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I had to google that one, it’s a great song, not sure if it would get in the.
‘Hit Parade’ these days though 😀
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I don’t think it got too far into the hit parade anywhere except college bars in the American South. But I sang along to it many a time. 🙂
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Haha, I bet you did 😘
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It was the 80’s so… 🙂
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😉😉
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Heh. I was 5/6 in 1972.
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That’s tall for someone so young 😉
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I grew some more…😁
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😂😂
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Reading your story, my nostrils widened as I took in several deep-deep breaths. I could almost smell your memories. And I could actually smell mine. Dunhill cigarettes, back in the day, The musty smell of my first car—a used Corvair. The masculine scent of an older guy who sat next to me on a bus going from Wichita to Kansas City in the late 1960s. I believe that I’ll have vivid dreams tonight. Thanks, sir!
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Thank you and your welcome, these days all you smell is lemon air freshener 😂😂
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Yes!
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I’m grateful that smoking has stopped on public transport.. 😉
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So am I even though I smoke. Some years ago I went to Paris on Eurostar and my g/f at the time booked a smoking carriage; I seriously thought I was going to die lol.
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I remember as a wee lad in the early 70’s walking past pubs and the smell of cigarette smoke, working man’s sweat, mingled with alcohol… raucous chatter and debate … reminded me of cherries at the time for some reason. I also remember “The City of New Orleans”. A great song. “Good morning, America, how are ya?…” Back in the sixties I guess now, is the answer… very sadly. You see, Charlie, how the senses evoke?
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Vinyl seats in cars have a strong smell that gets mighty funky over the years. They were popular in the late 70s, early 80s with all of the subcompacts. Cloth seats reek of scotchgard until they air out. Then, if you smoke, they retain that. Then there’s the leather seats…even as they age, they still smell good…unless you have peed on them or something. 🙄
I miss cars like my parents’ ’69 & ’72 Dodge Chargers…even my dad’s ’71 Plymouth Fury II state car. The two Dodges smelled of cigarettes, alcohol and gasoline. The Fury smelled like gun oil, cigarettes and gasoline.
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Fabulous, do love the smell of oil. The smell of a garage is just wonderful 😉
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Correction…’73 Fury II. I thought I fixed that before sending…🤔
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That’s a typical looking US car for us lymies lol
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Typical looking US cars, now, are all bubble cars…to me, anyway. Plastic bumpers, rounded features, blinding LED lights, electronics so confusing that you could have an accident looking for the volume. 🙄
I was a Driver’s License Examiner for nearly two years. Kids weren’t allowed to use the back-up cameras. I flunked many because they didn’t know how to turn around and back a car up. One of then drove all over a concrete pole.
Cars have no personality anymore…unless you are rich enough to own one of the classics. Then, you’d better have a locked garage and security. Somebody will try to steal it from you.
We have a guy in our neighborhood that has a baby blue ’66 Mercury Comet. You can hear him, coming & going. Love it!
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Ah you see we never had those type of cars, the best we ever had was a Ford Cortina lol
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I had to look that up. I’ve never heard if it but, at least it had some character compared to the blobs roaming the roads, now.
If I recall correctly, in the 1989 TV movie Nick Knight (which spawned the Canadian series Forever Knight), Nick, played by Rick Springfield, remarks that his 1959 Cadillac had the biggest trunk of any car ever made. He used it as a hiding place if he got caught outside when the sun was rising.
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Oh I definitely would have missed that, I was busy in the 80’s and 90’s 😂
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I smoked infrequently but loved Peter Stuyvesant cigs. You can’t call them fags over here… My mother in law smoked terrible cigs with no tips – can’t remember if they were Woodbine. Now I have to tell you my favorite joke from Egypt. The local ciggies are called Cleopatra and they make Woodbine seem classy. So, the salesman from Malboro and Cleopatra are sitting having a beer by the Nile. The Cleopatra salesman pleads with the Malboro guy to give him a clue as to why Malboro tastes so good. After a few beers, he shares that they mix a little bit of camel shit into the tobacco at Malboro. The Cleopatra sales rep says, “What is tobacco??”
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😂😂 Love it, thank you. I was a Rothmans man but thought it may make me sound like a snob😂 I’m sure the advert had an Airline Pilot 😏
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Rothmans is a bit snobby…😁
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Says the girl who smoked Peter Stuyvesant 😉😂
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Bwa, ha, ha!!!
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😂😂👍
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Reminiscent.
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… and engine oil!
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Haha, still love that smell of a garage 😀
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Rothmans were for the Monte-Carlo set. I smoked John Player Special at the time – they were still allowed to sponsor racing cars in those days.
The smell of a bus was, I think, different from the smell of an old car – more wet dejection and fewer vinyl high notes as the wine-tasting crowd would put it. Another great post – looking forward to the novel.
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Thank you, haha yes you’re right there was a difference but it’s possibly the vinyl that gets me?
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Powerful stuff. In Africa you had to be careful in hot seasons because the hot plastic seats could burn the backs of your legs if you were wearing shorts.
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Haha. I got that here and once burnt my arm on the metal of the seat belt buckle 😉
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The secret is to wear longer shorts. 🙂 Never hada problem with a seat belt buckle, but I imagine it could be quite a surprise.
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Aww c’mon this was the 70’s I had my Kevin Keegan shorts on 😉
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An offence against nature as well as against fashion. 🙂
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Haha notice I don’t post them, Gillian says they me be classed as pornographic, there again I got away with the monkey legs 😉
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You were lucky nobody called the RSPCA about that photograph! 🙂
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😂😂😂
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Brilliant! I remember smoking Peter Stuyvesant Blue cigarettes back in the day. Not sure why “Blue”?!
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Thank you. Hmmm, they weren’t Menthol, they were green but I don’t think they did a Menthol version, probably low tar lol. Only the classy people smoked them 😂😉
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The novel? Tell me about it!
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Ha, shortest synopsys ever. It’s set in Bradford 1974. I guess its a sort of coming of age. Billy is 18, on his own and trying to make sense of everything – Skinheads – local drug dealer – his many girlfriends – racism – bullying. It’s called ‘The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop.’ And that is the where the story culminates. Soory I’m rubbish at synoposys lol but thank you for asking it gives me practice haha.
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