Friday, September 18, 2009
Oh The Smells I Left Behind
The air is cool. It feels like fall. I smelled the interior of an elementary school today--it smells just the same as the school I went to as a kid. How is that possible? What is it that grade schools contain that creates that smell---that they contained 30 or 40 years ago? You can smell it in the stairwells, the hallways....I don't know..is it school supplies or some special floor cleaner used only in public schools? Maybe it's all those sweaty schoolkids confined in one space. Will schools still smell this way 30 years from now? I hope so. It hit me today as I was walking past the fish aquarium...I take for granted the school and that familiar funky scent, that conjures up memories both good and horrible----The time I barfed all over my desk in the third grade---having to endure long recesses in the biting cold---being picked last at kickball--pretending I was on the Starship Enterprise as a way to make it through the day--I took for granted that I was smelling that same smell again, when really, it's a unique smell not found anywhere else, and I could just as easily not be smelling it, if I didn't have kids. Why, I might never have smelled this smell again for the rest of my life, if it weren't for them! Think about that. And how disappointing it would have been if I had encountered some shiny new freshness in the air, generated by modern-day schools. No, the chalkboards might have lost out to dry erase boards, but grubby kids still line up in the halls, and those halls still emit the same smells as ever.
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This is a fascinating observation,and one that begs more scrutiny. What DOES make those schools smell that way? If you've ever been inside a school during the summer when the kids are away... there is a smell there too. It's almost like....the smell of the empty. Anyway, when I first read this, I thought, it has to be the kids.But after thinking about the way a school smells during the summer...and about 2 weeks before school starts....I don't know. Maybe the school is a living, breathing organism.
ReplyDeleteLL
I love that elementary school smell. I'm surprised it's eternal. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat comments. "Eternal" school smell. "The smell of the empty." Yes, I think I know what you're talking about LL. I smelled the empty one summer when I was going to the school for bassoon lessons. I like the image of the school as a living, breathing organism.
ReplyDeletesimone, i liked this post because you touched on a subject that everybody can relate to! it's so true, and i guess that's what makes it so fun to read. and i like laura's "smell of the empty" for the building in summer. awesome. i think that school scent comes from a combination of industrial paint, reams of paper, and those huge dust mops the janitors push down those hallowed halls.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I like writing about things that have universal meaning. : )
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