My wife visited her parents for a few days last weekend and brought back a few of our things, including a couple of books and DVDs I really missed.
 
Later last night, I was in the studio and an impression of something familiar seemed to struggle to make its way into my conscious mind. After a while I surmised that it was a smell, but it was so faint that only vague images came to mind, surfacing for a fraction of a second before vanishing again. 
 
I went to bed thinking that my tired brain was playing tricks on me. This morning when I entered the studio, it was as if all those vague impressions finally merged into something I could identify - that was a smell associated with the first time I quit smoking back in 2008. 
 
I picked up one of the books, and sure enough, that's what it was - that lingering smoker's place fragrance. Faint but definitely present.
 
Pretty disturbing that even after years in a non-smoking environment, that scent was preserved. Also discernible were traces of monoxide form the 2 years I spent living on a busy street and had my books piled up on the window sill, from 2008 to 2010.
 
Call me Jean-Baptiste Grenouille.
 
I remember in early 2000 selling a guitar to a friend who told me that his girlfriend didn't want him to keep it in the room because it smelled like cigarette. I thought she was nuts... Now I get it!
 
I can't imagine how I'd feel walking into my first tiny home studio, where I lived, ate, drank, slept - and smoke 2 packs a day. Eww...

I quit 30 years ago and I'm still super sensitive to that smell. 

I (somewhere, maybe still) have a QEMM manual that reeks of Marlboro Country.
 

Krist,
 
I had that same sort of thing happen with a (smoker) co-worker who passed away. When I was given some of his books I could "smell" him but I also had a strange sensation he was in the room too. 

2 packs of Marlboro here. quit nearly 27 years ago and I can smell it on a smoker as soon as they walk into the same room.

Never smoked in my life. Decorated a customer's hallway while she was out of town last week, big smoker. Horrible brown stains around the pictures and mirrors when I took them down. Had the door and windows open all the time, still had a pounding headache after each day.

I'm not too sensitive to actual smoke. My wife still smokes (though not in the house) and I don't mind. So do a lot of our friends. Whenever we go out, I often end up sitting at a table with a bunch of smokers (because, Las Vegas, you know...) and it doesn't bother me at all.
 
Old smoke is a different story though. People who smoke indoor in their home have that smell. It's not disgusting but it's really not something I would want to smell like myself. And I know I did for decades (I smoke for 30 years, roughly). Can't imagine going back.

Krist, totally the same - the wife smokes, but takes care when we watch a movie together. In summer, she smokes outside. I can however pick it up off clothing no,problem. I gave up after a bad medical check up 6 years ago.

The only problem i have is when the group i'm in rehearses, and they ALL smoke. We play well together so rather than being a hypocrite i suffer in silence..... but the clothes go into the wash the day. So far, so good. But i don't enjoy the second hand smoke. Hey, this is France, 40/50 year olds (such as our group) when they smoke, they smoke like the proverbial "pompiers" !

Ciao
Jerry

I have a wooden bowl that I took from my mother-in-laws house after she passed away more than 10 years ago.  It had been on her kitchen table as long as I had known her and was made by the shop teacher at the school where she taught. 
 
I stripped it ... every time I rubbed it down with a solvent the rag would turn yellow from the nicotine ... sanded it and then oiled it.  Still smells like cigarette smoke.
 
 

This one is kind of a reverse smoking smell story.  I spent a good portion of my adult live gigging in dive bars on the weekends and the bars were always smoke filled.  I don't remember exactly what year it was they started with the "no smoking" laws but I do remember vividly how nauseating some of the bars smelled when they weren't smoke filled.