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A Field Trip You Won't Forget!
Posted by ThriftShopRomantic • 8/07/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: field trips, kitsch, Nostalgia, school
I wrote today about an elementary school field trip my class took back in the 80s...
To a place that Parade Magazine apparently dubbed "one of the 10 Worst Zoos in America"!!--
www.cabbagesnkings.net/2009/08/space-farms-wildlifes-final-frontier.html
(It's not just the deeply-depressed zoo animals that made this place so painfully kitsch-a-licious--
It was the adjoining "museum" with all the dead things preserved in peanut butter jars!)
Anyway, I was wondering what kind of school trips folks here might have had that were memorable-- in either a very cool or complete bizarre way.
Care to share?
User Comments
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Heh, we went to the Twinkie factory in elementary school. I don't think I've eaten one since.
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Knowing how they were made took away the mystique, eh?
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Smelling them being made took away the desire, actually. That was in St. Louis. I later moved to California (after a stop or three) and the Jelly Belly factory had much the same impact in high school.
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Guess it's a good way to break oneself of junk food cravings.
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We went to Spain on a school trip once, it was great. Only living in the UK we went there by coach, took 30 hours but there was 40 of us all aged 14/15 boys and girls and 4 teachers. Was the best trip of my school life x-
Oh, that's amazing. How long were you there? Anything special you saw that sticks in your mind in particular?
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Funny, the only field trip I remember was when our third grade walked across the street to the local high school to see a production of Rapunzel. I vaguely remember the witches laugh, or rather--I remember that her laugh impacted me at the time.-
Funny how certain details like that stick!
I recall them taking us to see a stage version of Beauty and the Beast (not the Disney version), and the Beast scared the bejeebers out of me. I still remember what he looked and sounded like!
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1 week. While I was there I fell in love with Barcelona! It's a beautiful city. We went on a few trips there, went to the La Sagrada Familia - Gaudi's Unfinished Cathedral which was amazing. x
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Oh, I can imagine! I've seen photos of some of Gaudi's work. That's a great trip.
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Another well written article, TSR! You know--I honestly don't remember any weird field trips. Although there was one where a classmate got sick and threw up on the bus--but that was disgusting more than anything! (Plus I used to be the type of person that when I would see someone vomit, would feel sick myself).-
Thanks, Melinda.
Oh, I don't envy you being on that bus. -
wp
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I just remember all the field trips being incredibly dull. Visiting museums, Grant's tomb, all kinds of dumb stuff. On one field trip I remember seeing a headline in a paper announcing that Einstein had just died. At the time I was humming an old do-wop song. And to this day I still associate that song with Einstein's death.
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Was it the one that begins, "Don't know much about science books?" Because, y'know... irony...
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No, It's "Come Go With Me" by the Del-Vikings. It's one of the songs featured in "American Graffiti." But if I were writing a film script about that field trip, I'd use the song you mentioned.
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Having had to go to many an educational venue with my parents when I was a kid, I can sympathize.
Also, I lived fairly near some major George Washington-related landmarks. So it was always a case of "Washington Slept Here... and There... And Over There... And..."
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We went to Krispy Cream doughnuts one time and got free doughnuts. To the space and rocket center in Huntsville Alabama. We got to see Mrs. Baker the monkey that went up into space. I felt sorry for her she was in a glass cage for the rest of her life. And we picked cotton in the highway on the way backfrom that field trip. We were do redneck.-
Oh, you had some cotton-pickin' fun on your field trips, though!
(PS- we only just got Krispy Creams here about a year or two ago, and it was pretty much a local sensation. We had vendors trying to woo my company with boxes of doughnuts. It was pretty funny.) -
Krispy Kreme came and went in about two years, here. They were huge when they first opened but, after everyone had gone once or twice, very few went back.
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For our annual field trip when I was a kid, we got to go to Adler Planetarium every year or Brookfield Zoo. Fortunately, Brookfield Zoo was not as depressing as the one you wrote about. In fact, it was (and still is) a pretty decent zoo. It does have a very popular dolphin show, but recently, I heard a story on NPR about where 99% of the world captive dolphins come from.
This filmmaker decided to make a documentary about Japanese dolphin fishing called "the Cove". I haven't seen the movie yet, but after listening to the radio interview, I already don't think I will ever be able to look at a captive dolphin ever again.
www.thecovemovie.com/-
You've reminded me of the one pink Amazon River Dolphin the Pittsburgh Zoo had had. For years, he was in a tiny tank, until the Zoo built him a large aquatic playground. You should have seen the difference in his personality, with the room to swim around.
He was an old dolphin and died not that long ago. I was always happy he got to at least enjoy a few years with some room to play. -
Hey, you're talking to the girl who gets weepy thinking about her cat sitting in a cage waiting to be adopted for 4 months at the animal shelter.
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I actually have to try to not think too hard on things like that, or I'd be doing that, too.
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I had terrible luck with field trips.
In elementary school we had to cancel 2 of them because of rain! My home town is as dry as Phoenix, AZ. So, getting rain in the middle of the school year was not common at all.
In 6th grade I came to Tucson on a field trip. We went to the zoo and they were renovating, we only saw birds. I got yelled at by a policeman because he thought we were smoking in our room and the fire alarm went off. That was what happened but in the room next door that had 6 boys in it.
In high school we went to some waterfalls and I ripped the sole of one of my shoes, it was so embarrassing.
The climax of my bad luck was when we went to play in a town about 3-4 hours from my city (I was a marching band-nerd). We went on 2 buses, one for the girls one for the boys. A couple of Km before we got there the driver lost control of the bus (the girls') and we ended up on the ceiling of the bus. Fortunately no-one had mayor injuries, some broken bones, a bunch of backs and necks hurt (mine included), a lot of bruises, some cuts (I got 10 stitches on my head) and a few hysterical girls screaming that we were going to die.-
Wow... bad timing, bus accidents, police altercations-- you had it all!
PS- I was a band-nerd, too. But the most vivid thing I can recall is we had was one of the guys put his butt through the drywall of his hotel room.
At the end of the year, he received an award in the shape of a concrete butt-print. -
I was a band nerd, but we never went to any competitions from which we could not return the same night (except band camp, but that was with a couple of hundred total strangers). We were bad enough as it was without adding hotel rooms on top of it.
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That was the first time, and the last for obvious reasons, that we went out of town. Only 3 of the girls had to be sent to Hermosillo again, the rest of us stayed and played that night, after being patched up. The town was so small that the clinic had only 2 beds, they were going crazy.
The town we played in has a beach and we went to beach at night and a lot of the girls got a boyfriend that night. But, for some reason no-one had a lasting relationship, jajajaja. Everyone broke up after the shock of the accident got diluted, jajajaja. -
Sounds like the makings of another American Pie movie script, though. Or maybe a John Hughes type film.
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John Hughes passed away yesterday. He will be missed...
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Jajajajaja, you are right TSR!
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@Still I did hear about John Hughes, yes, it's sad.
@Deray- The JaJa always makes me smile. I'd never thought about that being the way it would be spelled in Mexico-- but makes total sense!
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Deray's mention of getting yelled at by a policeman reminds me of a day camp trip I took to Great Adventure (an amusement park) when I was...6 1/2? 7 1/2? We (a group of 10 or so little girls and a few counselors) were waiting in line to go on a ride, and one counselor made us skip ahead in the line. We were 'apprehended,' and were questioned in the security office for what seemed like hours.-
Ah-- Great Adventure!!!! We went there for our 9th grade physics class. We were supposed to be calculating the principles of physics for the rides... Instead we were, um, not.
I imagine you felt pretty traumatized as a result of the police grilling. I hope the counselor took the blame! -
I don't remember what the counselor did, but, yes, it was very upsetting for a little kid. Looking back now, it seems pretty absurd for security to have done that-- did they think we were some kind of little-girl gang?
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Well, I don't know if you would call this a field trip or not, but in middle school they used to send the honor roll students to Six Flags Magic Mountain, California, without chaperones. Can you imagine kids running around an amusement park without any parental supervision at all? We went bonkers, it was awesome! Funny enough, when I graduated to High School, they stopped sending the kids to Magic Mountain, probably for safety reasons, but who cares, I went 2 years in a row and had a BLAST!-
Same at my school back in the 70s. One kid I knew got lost for hours, his parents were contacted at in a huge panick.
I used to go bonkers too, my parents gave me $5, which was a lot back then and to me, and I would waste it all in less than two hours. -
That does seem amazing-- goes to show how much times have changed, and how quickly!
But it had to have been a blast.
Neo- Oh yes, $5 went a LONG way in the 70s.
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Zoos are terribly depressive to me. I love animals.
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hello all -
oh man, i took health class in the summer, before I went to high school (don't ask my why my mom thought THAT as a good idea...) and we took a field trip to the morgue. I was 12. It was a little tooooo much for me...-
Oh noooo. That would be a bit much for me, too. How did you make it through?
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haha by not looking too much and by holding my nose. embalming chemicals are too much.
i think they were trying to turn it into a lesson about drunk driving or something, but that kind of fell flat on its face...
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Sorry, can relate. All of my class field trips were pretty good. Cleveland was and still is an awesome tourist place even the zoo is excellent. If you place Cleveland schools as a tourist attraction though that is another story. -
Cleveland's museum of art was amazing. I haven't been to the zoo, but maybe should make the trip sometime.
How was the museum of natural history? I didn't get a chance to go there, either. -
Cleveland Metroparks is more than just a zoo. www.clemetparks.com/
There are tons of trails and parks including the Erie Canal www.eriecanal.org/
You couldn't spend a week in Cleveland and see everything. There is an awesome Theatre district, On the west side there is an antique district, the Flats is full of night time party goers, The CLeveland Health Museum has a giant walk through tooth, The Natural History Museum houses Lucy one of the oldest known human remains and a T. Rex, Also, the rock hall, and NASA research center.
I highly recommend Cleveland for a visit. -
i love the cleveland museum of art. i was so sad when large parts of it were closed for renovation.
cleveland's metroparks are also AMAZING...
i had no idea lucy lived in cleveland! i saw her on NOVA and dreamt for weeks that she came in and stole my blankey (i was about 5) ...i'll have to go pay her a visit! -
Yup! I grew up with Lucy. I was always at a museum or something. The Cleveland Museum of Art is incredible. I used to work there and I never got tired of seeing everything. Did either of you get to see the pond?
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Hm. Now you've got me thinking if I can get a day off at some point, I can turn it into a long weekend trip.
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i don't remember it, but i've only been in cleveland a couple of years... i go to baldwin-wallace, in berea... berea's so small that i try to make it downtown as often as possible!
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Cleveland botanical gardens are great too mythoughtsalways.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-thoughts-new-widjit.html Click on the arrow and it will show the pics.
This is not the pond commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cleveland_Museum_of_Art_South_View.JPG The pond is nearby. I couldn't find any pictures that would do it justice.
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My 2 favorite field trips were
1-To see the Egyptian Rameses exhibit at the local museum. It was awesome. Gold sarcophaguses, mummies, etc.
2-to my 3'rd grade teacher's parents' farm. We got to pet the animals, explore, and catch crawfish in the creek.-
Oh, getting to see the Ramseses exhibit sounds like such a wonderful opportunity.
We have a small Egyptian exhibit at our local natural history museum, but it's not terribly flashy.
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On a geography trip to some place of geographically importance, we had to measure grykes in the rocks.
Grykes explained at the bottom www.malhamdale.org.uk/malham_cove.htm
The teacher called them 'gwykes in the wocks' so I of course repeatedly asked what are they called again? Until one of my friends started choking laughing and got sent to sit back on the couch for being naughty.
In order to measure the 'gwykes' we were given large rulers, so I used mine to flick rabbit shit and giant slugs at everyone -
So you were exactly the same in school as now, eh?
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Erm coach not couch, whoops.
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Haha yeah pretty much
Well I am better behaved on here actually. -
*Snort* I'm not buyin' it.
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No really I am
I was a holy terror in school.
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The only field trip I remember was when my middle school took us to visit the Amish. Now I don't get why this is a field trip because I mean the Amish aren't side show freaks they are actual people...and maybe we weren't on the trip to visit the Amish but look at their farms. Whatever the case may be we stopped at this out of the way buffet, I think it was called Shady Maple or something that smelled of freshly dead pigs. Needless to say I sat dinner out and waited until we made it back to civilization I mean the city.
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