I envy the New Ulm High School students who went back to school this week to a brand spanking new building. They are experiencing something New Ulm students haven’t experienced in 50 years, and may not experience for another 50.

That feel and smell of a new school building.

I’m not sure if a new school has a special smell, like the fabled new car smell, but it must. It would include, I imagine, a faint air of industrial adhesives under the carpets giving off their last faint vapors, new concrete and fresh paint. Brand new desks and chairs would have a freshness, too.

But even more, students may notice the absence of odors that they got used to in the old school. Buildings accumulate odors over the course of decades. It must be strange to walk into the school lunchroom on the first day of school in a new school, for example, and smell only that day’s lunch cooking, not last month’s sauerkraut, or the faint aroma of hamburger that were being grilled last week.

And what about the gym and locker rooms? Will the athletes be able to get into their proper mindset without the aroma of generations of perspiring athletes who went before them to remind them that game time is near?

These are familiar aromas that work their way into the subconscious. They may be faint and not really noticeable, but they are there, gently reassuring students that they are in a familiar, friendly atmosphere.

We’re sure it won’t take much time for the new school building to take on its own ambience. This year’s students can take pride in knowing that they will be contributing to the atmosphere that will greet future generations of students.

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Kevin Sweeney has been the managing editor of The Journal since May 1985. A native of St. Paul, he worked at newspapers in LeSueur and Albert Lea before moving to New Ulm. Contact him at ksweeney@nujournal.com.