Strong sensory memories from childhood

I never thought I remembered very much about early childhood but as I read the many comments from others on here I get sudden flash backs I didn’t know where there,

In secondary school the wooden flooring we were made to sit on during assembly, always dusty and quite cold wood, and the smell of kids a mixture of bubble gum and freshly laundered clothing,

the sound of creaking wood as our whole school buildings were old fashioned wood, imagine a very massive shed complex, The stairwell was narrow all wood and took three landings to go from ground level to second top level, every thing creaked and in summer smelt strongly of creasote, The small cupboard under the stairwell was used to store water colour blocks of paint which was a chalky smell again very strong, one part of the building that was narrow and had hundreds of coat hangers lead to the outside, it had a join between it and the main complex which had a big bumped ramp around about three foot width, we would run and launch ourselves off from it, then the shout “DONT RUN” from a Male teacher, the sound of many feet was very loud, all the teachers wore jackets with elbow patches, smelt musty and everyone of them were very old and strict and grumpy, it had four big wooden steps quite narrow taking you to the ground outside.

The caretaker smelt of fuel as in heating oil his light brown jacket thin and very dirty hung on him like he lived in it, 

The large loud Scottish female teacher with horn rimmed glasses would talk orders, she smelt of dry dusty chalk or talcum, she would take the few catholic kids during assembly as we were all c of e, she did country dancing and sang loud but terrible.

In infants the smell of very bright red gloss paint used on washing up bottles to make post boxes for diaramas for Christmas, then the cotton wool snow, PVA glue smelt strong, again old buildings but brichpk, very long single story, metal framed windows with layers of paint that also crept into the panes of small square glass.

Amazed at all these memories as I have an atrocious memory, I thought I only had bad memories, flash backs of all the nasty times I was bullied or ridiculed at school by teachers  mostly.

some suddenly made sense as I tried to remember my early years after finding autism, they suddenly had meaning, often so painful I cried hysterically, 

I was being punished for trying, also thinking I was being kind or loving but that wasn’t seen, it was seen as me messing things up once again.

good post,,, still getting sudden memories as I type. 

Seems senses are very strong memory joggers, as well as the recollections from others in here.

I never thought I remembered very much about early childhood but as I read the many comments from others on here I get sudden flash backs I didn’t know where there,

In secondary school the wooden flooring we were made to sit on during assembly, always dusty and quite cold wood, and the smell of kids a mixture of bubble gum and freshly laundered clothing,

the sound of creaking wood as our whole school buildings were old fashioned wood, imagine a very massive shed complex, The stairwell was narrow all wood and took three landings to go from ground level to second top level, every thing creaked and in summer smelt strongly of creasote, The small cupboard under the stairwell was used to store water colour blocks of paint which was a chalky smell again very strong, one part of the building that was narrow and had hundreds of coat hangers lead to the outside, it had a join between it and the main complex which had a big bumped ramp around about three foot width, we would run and launch ourselves off from it, then the shout “DONT RUN” from a Male teacher, the sound of many feet was very loud, all the teachers wore jackets with elbow patches, smelt musty and everyone of them were very old and strict and grumpy, it had four big wooden steps quite narrow taking you to the ground outside.

The caretaker smelt of fuel as in heating oil his light brown jacket thin and very dirty hung on him like he lived in it, 

The large loud Scottish female teacher with horn rimmed glasses would talk orders, she smelt of dry dusty chalk or talcum, she would take the few catholic kids during assembly as we were all c of e, she did country dancing and sang loud but terrible.

In infants the smell of very bright red gloss paint used on washing up bottles to make post boxes for diaramas for Christmas, then the cotton wool snow, PVA glue smelt strong, again old buildings but brichpk, very long single story, metal framed windows with layers of paint that also crept into the panes of small square glass.

Amazed at all these memories as I have an atrocious memory, I thought I only had bad memories, flash backs of all the nasty times I was bullied or ridiculed at school by teachers  mostly.

some suddenly made sense as I tried to remember my early years after finding autism, they suddenly had meaning, often so painful I cried hysterically, 

I was being punished for trying, also thinking I was being kind or loving but that wasn’t seen, it was seen as me messing things up once again.

good post,,, still getting sudden memories as I type. 

Seems senses are very strong memory joggers, as well as the recollections from others in here.

Oh my goodness your account is amazing and prompted lots of other memories for me too... the white 'marzipan' paste glue I loved to smell,  the pickle stink of photography chemicals in the dark room, squishy sweet mulberries in the school grounds when I escaped the classroom (maybe that's why I planted a mulberry tree last year!). Sensory intensity has given me an incredible amount of pleasure as well as pain.