re: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever smelled?

My buddies tossed some leftover brats and stuff like that in my cooler after a camping trip. I forgot about it and left the cooler in my vehicle for a couple of weeks in the middle of summer. I started smelling a faint, sickly sweet smell and couldn't figure out what it was. Then, one day, the realization hit me and I cracked open the cooler.

What I found will never leave my mind

in 2016 I bid on the cleanout of a frac tank that had milk stored in it from 2005 after Katrina. The frac tank was in a parking lot exposed to the elements for 11 years. The milk had become this rancid solid we had to use 20K blasters to cut through. One day the crews broke for lunch and went to Raising canes on Plank road. The guys smelled so bad the Canes manager called our corporate ER number and complained. We ended up having to pay an amount to Canes because they shut their restaurant down for the rest of the day due to the smell. The landfill we were sending the waste to Woodside in Walker began rejecting the loads due to the smell and complaints of the neighbors around the landfill. yeah it was a tough week for those guys getting that tank cleaned

This has to be the winner?

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The freezer at the house had rotten liquid food oozing out of it. It was awful. Burying all that crap in the yard and cleaning the freezer was horrific.

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Harrowing.

A much younger Mr. M. in the halcyon days of college, spent time regularly helping out the parents handling tasks with which they might have struggled.

Usually it was done surreptitiously tackling regular tasks like yard work, treating and staining fences, and so forth. Asking Dad for permission or what needed doing could lead to tensions with him insisting he was perfectly capable to do anything which needed doing and doing it right!

These tasks were best done when the folks were at their camp. Usually I only had the Saturday if they were gone for a weekend. One Spring they left on a Thursday evening planning to stay eleven days returning on a Sunday evening.

0n Saturday weekend one, I did the yard and washed Dad’s boat and pressure washed his patio, carport, and driveway.

Saturday weekend two I did the fences and washed and stained their redwood patio furniture. I went into the house to turn down the AC to cool the place down, open some doors and windows to air it out a little and see if it needed any vacuuming of the carpet or mopping of the terrazzo floors.

After I shut the front door and windows and was leaving by the back door I noticed on the stove a large pot with a lid, I also thought I might have smelled something slightly “off” while I mopped and noticed it again as I hustled over to the stove to see if the pot was the source.

In one quick move I lifted the lid, pushed my face into the pot and took a big whiff of spoiled chicken and dumplings that Momma had cooked for supper the night they left two weeks before. She’d intended it for dinner that Thursday night but Dad surprised her with leaving that evening and she forgot it was on the stove. It had been festering there for two weeks waiting for our rendezvous.

I swear I believe from the quick glimpse I got it had taken life and was bubbling and seething in its cauldron. I had drawn in a massive breath and barely had time to get out the back door to projectile vomit again and again until I was bent down hands on knees still vomiting but with nothing left. I thought I had killed myself by breathing in some new fatal toxin.

a bum on the Paris Metro. Body Odor, halitosis, unwashed feet, vomit and rotten flesh. The entire car smelled like a corpse.

Sebaceous Cyst

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Katrina fridge. 12 days of no power before removal. Duct taped around the body and taped the seams. Still disgusting.

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Same

My brother used to live in Nola, a block off Lakeshore. Wealthy neighborhood, had a former Saints player living down the street (Renaldo Turnbull, if I remember right). I state that to clarify- lots of expensive, high-end appliances.

I remember us going back to check his house, the street was full of beautiful Zubzero stainless fridges. You briefly thought- those are fully functional, they just need to be cleaned, and you could get a 10k + refridgerator for free. This was close to a month without power.

And then, you opened one to check.

Thankfully, I don't really remember the actual smell, I just remember it was incredibly horrible, and stumbled off gagging and vomiting. And the taste of my vomit was far more pleasant in comparison to what hit my nostrils.

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Pup dying of Parvo, Once you have that smell in your memory it never leaves

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yeah parvo blood poops is a pretty distinct and disgusting smell.

Gut shot on a deer