That sounds like the same thing I remember. The old wooden floors in our school, which may have been built in the early 1900’s, must have needed that sort of cleanup even if nothing stinky was on them. I just know you could smell that stuff anywhere in the building and even just outside going in.
I often wonder if there’s incense or home deodorizer with that scent, or one of those things you hang on your rearview mirror. Might work as well as cinnamon, popcorn, bacon or honeysuckle. Imagine a guy asking his date, “What’s that heavenly perfume you’re wearing?” And she says, “Sweeping compound.”
I always dreaded the first day of school as the loss of the halcyon days of summer. Things got better my senior year- I had a car and was only taking a 4/6ths schedule, which meant I got out at 1:30ish.
Fear and depression. Another school year of endless bullying, boring classes, general misery. A source of nightmares, and the contemplation of suicide (being constantly told by teachers that life past school was worse did not help the latter at all).