What was this terrible smell from my childhood?

July 11, 2024 10:28 AM

Like many, I was an inquisitive little gremlin as a child, often taking things apart with no regard for consequences. I have a memory of encountering a powerful and awful smell one time when I was messing with something I ought not have.

Our family had a top loading washing machine and front loading clothes dryer in our basement, probably bought new in the late 60s when my dad completed building the house. I must have been around 6 or 7, so '76 or '77 when I noticed a little hinged lid on, I think, the top of the washing machine behind the big lid for loading the clothes into the washer.

Opening the little lid revealed a small opaque bottle hooked up to a small pipe that went into the innards of the washer. And I could not resist unscrewing the bottle and checking it out. which included unscrewing (?) the top and taking a whiff.

BIG MISTAKE

I received a nose-full of terrible astringent something that stuck up in there for what seemed like forever, but was definitely a matter of minutes rather than seconds. I quickly replaced the bottle and sat with my regret until the smell passed and I moved on to whatever other chaos there was to find that day.

This seems to be something that is very resistant to search, although I did enjoy finding that I could buy industrial scale bottle washing machinery on alibaba.

So, I put it to y'all, can anyone tell me what that horrid substance was and what purpose it was serving? Was it the washing machine? Or could it have been the dryer?

posted by ursus_comiter to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

Those little lids usually covered an access for adding stuff like liquid fabric softener and bleach duing the wash. The washing machine we had in my family's house when I was growing up in the 1970s had one. Later washer models would find a way to put this dispenser inside the main compartment. My guess is that you unscrewed a bottle of bleach that might have been in there for quick access.
posted by briank at 11:06 AM on July 11

I googled around for a few minutes and learned very little so this... Might not be useful but: whenever I hear stories about a traumatic smell incident as a child (which weirdly this isn't the first or 4th time) I always think the same thing... Ammonia.

So... Maybe someone was using ammonia in the little bleach compartment thing. Or maybe you just got a good huff of bleach.

Have you ever smelled ammonia or smelling salts? Powerful unforgettable smell.
posted by chasles at 11:14 AM on July 11 [7 favorites]

seconding ammonia.

as a stupid little kid I found a bottle of lemon scented ammonia in my family’s cleaning supplies, and took a huge whiff of it. The burning is something I remember 45 years later.
posted by hollisimo at 11:51 AM on July 11 [1 favorite]

Vinegar?
posted by credulous at 12:02 PM on July 11

It was likely ammonia, and given that it seems to have been hooked into the water line I assume it was a built in hard water softener.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:28 PM on July 11

Best answer: I remember our Kenmore dryer in the 80s had a little glass bottle of something under the same door as the lint screen. The little bottle had a cap with a tube in it to take in a little bit of what ever was in the bottle.

I don't remember being adventurous enough to take the cap off though.

With the key word dryer instead of washer I did find this forum post that says it was actually a very concentrated "freshener" scent added to the clothes and they also say that it didn't smell very good in the concentrated state.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 1:25 PM on July 11 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: OMG ArgentCovid that's gotta be it! This pic from that forum thread is right in line with what I remember.
posted by ursus_comiter at 3:31 PM on July 11 [2 favorites]