I lived in Houston when from age 7 to 14, and there was ALWAYS strange smells. We could identify Dow Chemical, Champion Paper, and the stench of run over dogs or cats along Aldine Mail Route and the bayou. It was quite easy to tell which way the wind was blowing just by the smell.
Yep, there are all sorts of really rotten smells: paper mills, oil refineries and rendering plants. I once asked folks who lived in a town with a paper mill how they could stand the stench. — “What stench?” I suppose you can get used to anything, especially on Beautiful Buffalo Bayou. :o)
I grew up in Midland, Michigan .. home of Dow Chemical Company. I attended Central Intermediate High School in '68 or '69, when the Dow stockholders held their meeting in our auditorium .. and a bunch of us were on the roof throwing water balloons, eggs, and tomatoes at the anti-war demonstrators below.
We lived about 10 miles upstream of Dow Chemical on the bank of the Tittabawassee River. Early mornings, when leaving for school, you could always tell if Dow was processing something. My dad always said that it was the smell of Dow Chemical making money ...
That reminds me of a story from my college years up in the Smokies of NC. There was a Champion paper mill in Canton, NC, about 30 miles away. No odor whatsoever under the vast majority of conditions, but the locals always said “if you can smell Canton it’s going to snow.” And you know what? It did, they were right, lol.