I don't mean to be pedantic, but just so you know: illicit refers to things which are taboo, illegal, or frowned upon. I think you mean elicit which is to evoke a feeling

For me, it's the sound of heavy rain on the roof. Grandma's house had a tin roof, and we lived in a climate where it rained all the time. The rain hitting a metal roof makes a distinctive sound that I had forgotten about for many many years until I moved into my own place and replaced the roof with steel. It's just so soothing knowing the world's having a fit, but you're safe and cozy in your home

This one is easy for me. When I was a kid, my mom made a hamburger casserole. The ingredients were fairly cheap, it was easy to make, delicious, and filling – all perfect for a single mother who worked long hours. Needless to say, we had it pretty regularly. When she passed away, my wife inherited all of her recipes. Mom has been gone 10 years, but when my wife makes it, it tastes just like it used to and takes me back to a time when, even though we didn’t have much money, it was her and me against the world. Eating it now gives me a warm comfortable feeling.

In fact, I’m going to text my wife now and tell her that I’d like some for supper this week.

Diesel exhaust makes me horny.

I was in marching band, and would sit in the back of the bus fooling around with my girlfriend after games and competitions.

So now whenever I smell diesel exhaust it gives me a nostalgic chub.

When the iron curtain fell, our parents took us on a camper trip through East Germany. Since then the smell of brown coal being burned always takes me back to those days.

When I'm lying in bed and garbage truck pass pass by my house and it makes noise and sheds orange light inside my room. It reminds me of when I was little and I went to croatia with my grandparents. When we were driving at the night on Highway and there were tunnels every few kilometers, the lightning and noise was exactly the same.

Illicit- forbidden, illegal, taboo

Elicit- evoke a response, obtain

I grew up next to a stop sign in a tiny town straddling a one-lane road that by some joke of fate was the the most efficient automobile route between two points of much greater interest.

To me, the sound of a big diesel engine idling at a stop is the sound of a peaceful winter night with my bedroom window open.

Music for me. I listen to music a lot, so when I experience something significant or memorable, I associate it to the song I was listening to at the time. Whenever I hear the song, it takes me back to that memory.

Grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. In my early teenage years when my mom was in the hospital for a long time and my dad had to work the second shift it was on my to cook dinner for me and my sister. More times than not I chose to grill a chicken in the oven and make instant mashed potatoes and add some sauerkraut on the side so we would have some vegetables on the plate too.

The chicken was great, the instant mashed potatoes and uncooked sauerkraut were terrible. Now when I do it though I make mashed potatoes from fresh potatoes with milk and butter and I cook the sauerkraut so it becomes nice and smooth.

The smell of bay water and the sound of seagulls brings me back to vacationing at the Jersey shore as a child.

Grew up in an apartment across the street from an end of line tram station. So the screeching of the wheels on the tram line when it makes a tighter turn does it for me.

The smell of skunk reminds me of summer no matter when I smell it

the smell of heavily chlorinated water. i used to spend a heck of a lot of time at the pool when i was a kid, and where i live now there aren't nearly as many pools, so it's not something encountered often anymore.

At my old job they had these kiosks that had a printer and would beep when they were out of paper. One of them beeped at a low pitch for some reason. It always reminded me of old computer games

that hotel hallway smell. can't quite describe it any other way, but it hits hard for me

shrimp pizza smells like a restaurant i went to when i used to visit family in a foreign country

Whenever I eat at a restaurant and they have strawberry rhubarb pie in the menu, I gotta take a slice. Takes me right back in time to my grandmother.

As a kid, we visited my grandmother often and she always had vanilla ice cream for us, and she played classical music on the piano. Now every time I eat vanilla ice cream or hear any of the pieces she played, I am reminded of our visits to her home. She had an old apartment, and all the furniture was at least 100 years old other than the baby grand Yamaha piano.

Really bland architecture, people milling around in the sun. It describes a lot of good days in my childhood, I think.