I thought I would start a new thread on the worse smell's we ever smelled.
When I was doing maintance work for a real estate co. here in town , about 15 years ago. One of the houses that I was taking care of had a broken 2" water line in the back yard. That had been broken for a couple of days we figured. Anyway, I had to shut off of the water main to fix the break, and I dug by hand shovel in the hard rocks for a couple of hours. The whole I dug was almost 5 ft. long and a 1 1/2 wide,and 2 ft. down, but digging in the desert rocks is not to easy. Anyway, where I had to dig was right where the owner had been dumping all of his cooking oil, cat litter, motor oil and cat poo. Thoses four ingredients stunk to high high heaven. I had to go get my painters mask to cover my face, it was so foul. :( :(
And here I though dirty diapers and septic systems were bad. They didn't hold a candle to that smell.
Needless to say I got the water line fixed and back filled. The water bill was just short of $200.00.
The number 1 stinko is SKUNK !!!! Of course that is only my opinion
Long dead bodies are pretty bad. My sense of smell isn't too good, but I could never be a medical examiner. We always carry a jar of Vicks on the ambulance. And for looking so innocent, the Durian fruit tastes wonderful, if you can get it past your nose. Bad stinky feet x10 !
I think I'm going to have to go with Diane on the worst smell. She's dead right. (Sorry, there I go again. Puns!) Although I remember when I worked at the Allied Mills elevators in Omaha when I was a youth, I was selected by lot to go down under a small feed ingredient tank that had leaked into the concrete base, gotten wet, and rotted. It was fish meal. That was pretty nasty, too.
A urine soaked bathroom! >:( >:( >:(
;D ;D ;D PEE-U ;D ;D ;D ::)
dirty hair and musty clothes
Cattle feedlots
The little house out back in the summer.
Four years ago, a semi truck turned over on the cloverleaf intersection north of Caney, emptying its load of bone meal (ground up animal bones). Nobody was hurt, the truck was up-righted and the next day everything was cleaned up.
Or so we thought.
Two weeks later, that intersection stunk so badly I couldn't stand to drive by. It had rained after the accident, then the hot sun started working and the decaying bone meal became the prey of maggots --- billions of them. The KDHE and EPA both were called in for a major clean-up. They actually dug out all the dirt and hauled it away. I remember standing near the site and looking at a large embankment where the bone meal and maggots had turned into a moving mass. I've never seen or smelled anything like it.
But then, I don't drive ambulances either --- I'm sure there are some awful sites and smells that these fine folks find.
DON'T ASK!!!
Yup, that bone meal experience was a lot like my fish meal experience, except that mine had the extra added attraction of smelling like rotted fish. I don't guess that probably made it all that much worse, actually.
;D
I kid you not, this is true. When I worked at the co-op we had a customer that I couldn't breath when he came in. I literally held my breath while I waited on him then immediatly went outside for fresh air. We had to spray lysol in the air after every one of his visits. I have smelled some foul things, including the guys when they were cleaning the spoiled and fermented grain from the bottom of a pit (and that stinks), skunks, sewers, dirty diapers, but nothing and I mean nothing could compare to this guy.
One of the worst things to hit my nose was the smell of a heavy set bag lady as she pushed her grocery cart containing all her earthly belongings down the sidewalk in Washington, D.C. in full view of the White House. It was so bad, people created a several foot corridor around her as she pushed by.
***
The 7th Finance Section during the Vietnam conflict contained a large upright "safe of death." This safe was not opened unless absolutely necessary.
US dollars were taken from each GI as he entered Vietnam and he received a like amount of Military Payment Certificates (MPC). MPC was a substitute for US dollars, were the same size, and had the same value but were good only while in country. All GI paydays were in cash at the time and payment in Vietnam was with MPC. The intent was to keep US dollars off the local economy.
Many times, a soldier went into combat carrying MPC. Inside the safe was MPC taken from dead GIs. A sickening odor literally exploded from the safe immediately as the doors were opened engulfing the vault and spreading out into the office in general.
Sometimes, a body lay in the hot jungle sun for a considerable time before being recovered. As the body bloated and decayed, the odor penetrated billfolds and MPC bills giving them a terrific horrible stench. When a body was badly torn and bled profusely, blood permeated the bills acting as glue binding them together and magnifying the odor.
Bills recovered from bodies were inventoried and sent to the Finance Office where they were immediately again counted and placed in the death safe. Every bill reeked. Most were blood soaked. Many had to be pried apart to determine the amount.
These bills were eventually destroyed, but not before being held for some time pending disposal of their value. Once a dead soldier's will was processed by Army lawyers, they authorized a Treasury check in the MPC amount recovered sent to the man's designated beneficiary.
Unfortunately, I totally understand that smell.
And there is no worse.
Molded, wet, rotten soybeans
Lots and lots and lots of human blood.
A decayed body at an autopsy.
I think if we were taking a vote, human bodies that have been dead for a while would win. It is truly unmistakable.
Suggestion:
Why don't we "bury" this thread and go on with something else? Sorry -- I think I have read the worst of the worst. Forgive me!
It does seem a little ghoulish. And the memories that it invokes are not exactly good ones. So I would be perfectly happy to put this topic in the dead letter bin. See, I couldn't resist a bad pun even in this situation. I don't know what to do with me.
My grandfather loved Linburger cheese. My grandmother would not let him bring it into the house. But he put some leftover in his lunch bucket, brought it in the house after it had been setting out all day. Grandma opened it and That was a powerful smell and of course, there is always stink bait. My dad could make the stinkiest (is that a word?) I'm sure I will be corrected. ;D
My husband and I moved to Oklahoma when Andy was only 22 months old. My husband was training at Altus AFB for 3 months. Toward the end of his training period we had learned that Grandma had died. We decided that we would drive up to Howard, then cut accross the state, eventually hook up with Interstate 5 and head North back to Washington. After the funeral, and visiting with relatives, we got in the car and started our journey. We were headed West on 54 and just as we got into the Oklahoma pan handle, the stench hit us. I don't know how many beef processing plants there are along that stretch, but the smell was soooo bad I would have guessed about 100. My poor little boy was retching in the back seat and I was pretty close to loosing my cookies too. Yuck!!!!
Down state Delaware ( also known as lower,slower Delaware) is very rural and raises a kajillion chickens. So, it follows that there are hatcheries and chicken processing plants. A few years ago, the state made them clean up and now they somehow compost the waste and the smell is pretty much gone.
I would be overjoyed if they would teach that technique to Kansas pig and cow raisers.
Yup, I would.
;D
A few years ago they started experimenting with a cactus (Yucca I think ???) that absorbs odors, they were hoping it would grow around hog and feedlot lagoons and take away the stench. Never heard what came of it :'( but my nose tells me it either did not work or they are still working on it
At the very least, it would be appropriate, and not without a certain poetic irony, if the answer to all those horrible feed lot smells was something called "yucca." After all, people have been saying "yucky" about them for years.
;D
Perfect
I am trying to contact W. Gray. Please send me an email at jima444@yahoo.com, regarding 7th Finance.