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Today my wife and I are celebrating our five-year anniversary. I’m taking a half day, so half these questions are new and the other half I’ve asked before.
1. Growing up in North Jersey, we had our share of memorable field trips—The Land of Make Believe, Turtle Back Zoo, Waterloo Village, Hershey Park, and various museums in New York—but my clearest memory is about a trip that wasn’t taken. After the bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103, our scheduled field trip to Newark Airport was canceled. When a classmate asked our teacher what one thing had to do with the other, she said, “You might get kidnapped by terrorists.” It’s a wonder any of us ever flew again. What was your best, worst or most memorable field trip?
2. In honor of my anniversary, what were you doing (roughly) five years ago today? Ten years ago? Fifteen?
3. Earlier this year, I posted a round-up of unbelievable high school mascots. We might follow that up with a list of schools named after controversial people (or people you wouldn’t expect to have a school named in their honor). Would any schools in your area qualify?
4. Today’s last question comes from reader Missa Haas. She wanted me to ask readers to list their favorite scary books as we head towards Halloween. Her initial suggestion: Justin Evans’ A Good and Happy Child. What say you?
[Image courtesy of buelow. See transcripts of previous Friday Happy Hours]
Comments (66)
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I only have an answer for number 1 because it’s so gross.
On the last day of school in 6th grade every 6th grade class went to an amusement park, but not my class… we went to the sewage treatment plant that was so close to the amusement park that all of our friends were at that we could see the tops of the roller coasters. It was beyond torture to be standing next to a pool of sludge and look up to see the park. In college I went to a sewage treatment plant again for a biology class and it was very, very interesting, but I think it’s a bit much for a group of 11 year olds.
posted by hannah on 10-9-2009 at 10:39 am
I don’t know if this qualifies as the worst field trip, but in elementary school my class went to a landfill. We learned about where trash goes and about recycling and whatnot. As a 2nd or 3rd grader, it was fun, but thinking back…a dump, really?
posted by Kelsey on 10-9-2009 at 10:48 am
1. I took a class in college on the history of New York City, which required us to take two walking tours of Manhattan. It sounds tedious but it was hands-down the most fascinating trip I’ve ever taken (and I’m from the NYC suburbs so I thought I knew everything about the city). The nearly-forgotten history hiding in the nooks and crannies of Manhattan is truly amazing.
2. Five years ago, I was trying to find a daycare for my son before I went back to work. Nothing special for 10 or 15. At least nothing interesting to others.
4. Stephen King’s The Long Walk is more of a psychological horror story but I think it qualifies. It’s truly disturbing down to its core.
posted by Mother Chat on 10-9-2009 at 10:53 am
Oh, and happy anniversary!
posted by Mother Chat on 10-9-2009 at 10:54 am
1) my best/most memorable field trip was in high school- we got to go and see a play for my Shakespeare class
2) 5 years ago- i was in College in North Dakota
10 years ago- I was in High School in Minnesota
15 years ago- I was in 2nd grade in South Dakota
posted by Suzie on 10-9-2009 at 10:59 am
4. The Monster at the End of This Book. Grover gets sooo scared! :)
posted by Debi on 10-9-2009 at 11:01 am
1) We went to visit an Amish farm in Lancaster PA. At least they told us it was Amish. When I reflect back on it, I don’t see the Amish agreeing to let a group of suburban elementary school student visit their farm…
2) Well, I was in the last throes of wedding – our 5 year anniversary is 11/6.
3) I went to Haverford High School in Havertown, PA – home of the Haverford Fords. Our mascot was a Model T Ford whose appearance was exceptionally rare.
posted by Martin on 10-9-2009 at 11:11 am
1. Best field trip ever (as a kid) was Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. It could have been better, but it rained so we didn’t actually get to go in the village. But it was an all day trip to Dearborn on real buses, not school buses. For a 6th grader who had never really been anywhere, that was awesome. Best trip as a chaperone was Sesame Place with my 5-year-old. Or, maybe the week-long trip to DC with her as an 8th grader. IDK, I have had some pretty fun school field trips… mostly as a parent!
2. 5 years – stressed and needed to change jobs; 10 years – stressed and needed to move; 15 years – nothing stands out, but at least I apparently was not stressed.
posted by Hyacinth on 10-9-2009 at 11:12 am
#4. Tailypoo (seriously look it up)
posted by AuntieEm on 10-9-2009 at 11:29 am
As for number three, we have a Richard Nixon Elementary school in Cedar Rapids that has been around since the early 1970s.
posted by Mr. Fish on 10-9-2009 at 11:30 am
Not a field trip, but I remember 4H camp at Camp Fulton in Atlanta in the late 1970s. That was great. Over the course of the week, we went to Six Flags over Georgia, an Atlanta Braves game, the High Museum of Art, and the Omni (where we went ice skating). Not your typical “summer camp” experience, particularly in Georgia, but it was great fun nonetheless.
posted by Sandy Wood on 10-9-2009 at 11:37 am
1. This was Boy Scouts, not school, but I remember for my Citizenship in the Nation merit badge we had to tour a federal office. Our scoutmaster set something up with our Congressman and we got to go to his local office. He was there and we got to meet him. It was pretty cool.
2. Five years ago today I wad moving into my first post-college apartment getting ready for my first day on my first real post-college job.
My five year anniversary is in December.
3. Deer Park “Deer”. Hmm, seems to make sense.
posted by Witty Nickname on 10-9-2009 at 11:38 am
1– My most memorable field trip was in the second grade. We went to downtown Chicago to visit the State of Illinois building. We went to the top to look down (17 floors below). My teacher tapped me on the shoulder to ask if Jimmy could take my spot and look down. As I stepped back, the glass panel I had been leaning on dropped to the level below and shattered. Jimmy’s response was “I don’t think I want to look anymore.” My response was to cry.
Needless to say, that part of the field trip was over, all the students were herded away. Jimmy is a firefighter now. I can’t get on a chair without hyperventilating.
2. 10/2004 I believe I was diagnosed with cystic ovaries about then.
10/1999 Working at a job I hated for waay more money than deserved for the work.
10/1994. I was a freshman in high school. Ugh.
3. I went to Washington Irving Junior High. I was assigned a project on him, and found that he dropped out of school in the 4th grade. He didn’t even make it to the Junior High level.
4. The Amityville Horror. I will never tire of this book.
posted by emily on 10-9-2009 at 11:48 am
Best field trip was EPCOT in December 1982. It had just opened in October. Some of my fellow students had fake IDs and were rather soused on the trip home. (Drinking age was 19 then)
Worse was to Green Acres petting farm with my youngest. They overbooked, no where for the kids to eat lunch, etc., etc.
posted by Mary on 10-9-2009 at 11:52 am
1. My Girl Scout camping trip in 5th(?) grade. It was in this old church, and there were MILLIONS of dead lady bugs.
2. 5 and 10 years ago today, I was in school.
3. My sister goes to Columbus (Ohio) School for Girls. Their mascot is the Unicorns, and all their sports teams are abbreviated Unies.
4. The original Dracula, by Bram Stoker.
posted by Nora on 10-9-2009 at 11:55 am
1. The best field trip I had was in the summer between 6th and 7th grade. I was in a club called S.E.A.R.C.H. and we had to do a whole bunch of fundraiaing if we wanted to go on the year-end field trips. We went to the San Diego Zoo, Aquarium of the Pacific, Olivera Street in San Diego, and ended with Raging Waters. We did these on different days for about a week. So everyone would get on the bus at 5am, ride down to whereever we were going, and then ride the bus all the way back home. I remember the long bus rides down to San Diego and how everyone had a portable CD player, blasting the Spice Girls CD. I had so much fun on those trips.
2. 5 years ago- I was just getting my first ever apartment with a co-worker (worst idea ever!)
10 years ago- Just starting my 2 month of Freshman year of high school
15 years ago- In the 4th grade
4. You can never go wrong with “The Shining”
posted by Colene on 10-9-2009 at 12:32 pm
Happy Anniversary! :)
2.)
10/9/04 I was very 8 months plus pregnant and very crabby, calling my BFF to wish her a happy birthday.
10/9/99 I was in college, probably drinking to celebrate my BFF/roomates’ birthday.
10/9/94 I was a sophomore in high school, probably going to the mall to
celebrate my BFF’s birthday.
posted by mrs.djs on 10-9-2009 at 12:39 pm
1. Near the end of my freshman year in high school I went on the annual Earth Science (freshman geology) field trip to Duluth, MN. After a day of mostly forgettable wandering around we partook in a field trip tradition- Who Can Stand Up To Their Knees In Lake Superior The Longest. This was sometime in late April or early May, roughly 10 minutes after the ice is clear of the shoreline. In other words, the water is freakin’ cold. Several of us were declared co-winners after about 15-20 minutes. My feet were still numb when we got back home 4 hours later.
2.
5 years ago- either at work or at home with my daughters.
10 years ago- At work at one of the last satisfying jobs I ever had. It’s been downhill since then.
15 years ago- At work for a marketing company and sharing a folding table with a coworker because there wasn’t enough room for everybody.
3. There used to be high schools here in the Twin Cities named after Frank B. Kellogg and Alexander Ramsey. I have no idea who they were, but Ramsey County (home of Saint Paul) is named after Mr. Ramsey.
Another district has 2 high schools, one named after Neil Armstrong, the other named after a former superintendent of the district. An odd choice I think.
There is a school in my district (where my wife teaches) that has an odd name. Eastview High School. The school faces north. The only thing it is east of is the city’s public works building. If you view the school from the east all you see is a sea of soccer fields. If you view the east side of the building you see the student entrance and the varsity football field. But it is 3 miles east of Westview elementary school, which I guess makes it okay.
4. It’s not particularly scary, but I like to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
posted by eric! on 10-9-2009 at 12:59 pm
Best field trip was to the Butterkrust bread factory in my hometown of San Antonio. You learned the bread making process by guided tour of the factory. At the end they gave you a Butterkrust ruler, two pencils and a slice of fresh bread with butter on it. I think the smell wAs the best part.
posted by Jay on 10-9-2009 at 1:03 pm
1. In kindergarten, we went across the street to a bakery called Manila’s because we had just learned the letter M. I thought it was the most amazing thing you could do in school.
In college, my class traveled to France to meet the team of students that we had collaborated with on our engineering design project (via web-conferencing and phone calls at odd times of the day).
I don’t know, the bakery still sticks out more distinctly in my mind.
posted by Sally on 10-9-2009 at 1:19 pm
1. Great field trips included a hydroelectric power plant and the Smithsonian.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 10-9-2009 at 1:20 pm
1. Grade 9 Annual Geography/History Trip – It was autumn 1997 and we got a tour of most major geographical and historical features in the Niagara Region in Ontario, Canada in the morning. In the afternoon, we then got to go over the border to see the Love Canal, NY and that was pretty fascinating. There were still people living illegally in this ghost-town neighbourhood. We then got to go to Sammy’s Pizzeria in Niagara Falls, NY – still the greasiest, cheesiest pizza I’ve had in my life. One kid ate 30 square slices, and got real sick.
posted by Craig on 10-9-2009 at 1:38 pm
1)My art history class went to the Norton Simon and my dad came as a chaperone. I spent the whole time with him looking at art and talking about Rodin. It was a great father-daughter moment. I sure do love my dad!
2)5 years: Freaking out about not having a post-college graduation plan, taking the best art history courses of my college career, and mere months away from meeting the man who would become my husband.
10 years: Trying to figure out life as a high school freshman, anguishing over classes I didn’t have any friends in, making friends with the weird big-haired guy in English who would later awkwardly declare a three-year-long crush on me.
15 years: Making friends with the weird girl in my fourth grade class who would later go on to communicate with people solely by meowing at them.
posted by Andrea on 10-9-2009 at 1:54 pm
In 8th grade we took a pretty awesome field trip to the local anheuser busch plant and rjr tobacco plant. I don’t know if it were to teach us what not to do as we grew up or show us the process so that we would be traumatized. The very cute boy I got paired with during the beer tour looked through the window into the plant and said with the most awe filled voiced, “it’s raining beer”. Best ever field trip.
posted by Andrea B on 10-9-2009 at 1:59 pm
1. my most memorable field trip was in about 1st grade- they took us to a glorified pumpkin patch- but I’d never been anywhere like that and was absolutely enthralled. At the end, we got pumpkin flavored ice cream. To this day, my memories of that day are of total happiness! Mom was one of the chaperones and I loved it that she came along.
2. 10/2004- I was living with a co-worker whose addiction to painkillers freaked me out… (it was a very short term arrangement); 10/99- life as usual; 10/94- major career change was underway- I was scared stiff and also very anxious to get going- has been a great ‘trip’!
4. ’scary books’? I’m not big on stuff that’ll keep me awake at night- but I’ve read most of Patricia Cornwell’s stuff…and it freaks me out but I always read the next one.
posted by ann on 10-9-2009 at 2:02 pm
1. Children’s Hands on Museum in Tuscaloosa, AL. I remember that had burned out a log and we used oyster shells to scrape out the ash to make a dugout canoe.
2. 5 Years Ago – Engineer on the F22 in Marietta, GA
10 Years Ago – Junior in Aerospace Engineering at Auburn University
15 Years Ago – High school
3. Robert E. Lee High school in Montgomery, I guess taking part in the largest armed rebellion in your nation’s history counts for being controversial.
4. The Shining by King.
13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, by Kathryn Tucker Windham a classic for school children in Alabama.
posted by Brian on 10-9-2009 at 2:02 pm
on the other hand, going to Krispy Kreme, watching the whole donut making process through the glass wall and then going to the front and ordering a hot fresh one- well, that’s not too bad for a mini ‘field trip’… lol
posted by ann on 10-9-2009 at 2:06 pm
Best field trip EVER, was in seveth grade, we had this huge service project, in which we were gathering books for a local womens and childrens shelter. We spent a month gathering books, and raising money, then on the day of the field trip we got to go to wild rumpus (a book store) and pick out the books to match our total, then we went to the shelter to hand the books out it was the most rewarding experience I have ever had!
posted by Jessica on 10-9-2009 at 2:07 pm
1. The best field trip ever was to the County Jail. They even locked us all up into our own isolation rooms and in the detox room. Good Times!
3. I went To Marcus HIgh School which was named after Stanley Marcus of the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus. Oddly enough our mascot was the Masked Marauder.
3.The Shining does it for me. I’m just like Joey on Friends, I have to put it down because I get too scared.
posted by TellulaBlue on 10-9-2009 at 2:16 pm
1) Fieldtrip -
Best was my eighth grade year – we went to the world’s tallest hill (it’s in Eastern Oklahoma and is, no joke, about a foot too short to qualify as a mountain) and it was just a great time with great friends. I moved across the country a few months later and will never see my classmates again, so it was nice to have that special memory.
Worst was in third grade going to the omniplex (a children’s hands on museum in OKC)- we were on the school bus ready to head downtown when we heard the bomb (for the Federal Building in Downtown OKC, April 19, 95 if you need to wikipedia it) go off. The radio was on, so we heard the first bit of a report about what was going on (”blood everywhere”), but it wasn’t until we got home and saw the news that I grasped what was going on. We still went on the fieldtrip, but a bit of childhood innocence was gone forever (kind of like what the rest of America experienced with Sept 11, I imagine).
2) 5/10/15 years
5 years ago – October 2005: I was in the beginning of my sophomore year in college, still in the first few months of dating the love of my life and just busy with school
10 years ago – October 1999: My dad had moved across the country and my mom and I were living alone/dealing with moving. This was eighth grade year (see above fieldtrip) and I had a great time.
15 years ago – October 1994: probably planning Halloween costumes/trick or treating routes and doing the school thing, y’know, like most nine year olds…:)
4) I made the mistake of reading ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King alone in my first apartment (this was before vamps were chic and sexy) and I was scared. to. death. SO, I’d say scariest book is ‘Salem’s Lot.
posted by OkieMelissa on 10-9-2009 at 2:40 pm
The worst field trip we had to take was the Death and Dying Trip for my 9th grade sociology class. The day consisted of touring a nursing home, then a funeral home where we viewed the casket and embalming rooms. The basics of the embalming process were also explained. The day wound up at Toledo Memorial Park where we toured the cemetery finishing with a lecture in the chapel. During the lecture we learned about body decay post-burial, the cremation process and to send us off with a memory, they passed around a box of cremated remains. I still get squeamish thinking about that trip 15 years later!
posted by kcwed2010 on 10-9-2009 at 2:57 pm
My most memorable field trip would have to be in 1968 when I was in 3rd grade. We took a trip to see the Watts Towers in Los Angeles. Amazing…
posted by SparkyBob on 10-9-2009 at 2:59 pm
DUH!! Five years ago would be 2004, wouldn’t it? Can you tell it’s been a long week?
Fine, October 2004 I was busy preparing for Regional and State Cross Country meet (HS senior), a televised orchestra concert (local PBS station) and visiting colleges, as well as working and visiting all the local horror houses (haha) with my best friends.
Probably more interesting than 2005…:)
posted by OkieMelissa on 10-9-2009 at 3:03 pm
Happy Anniversary to you and your wife.
1:
I also grew up in North Jersey, in Hudson County. We took some great field trips as well, but I am jealous because we never went to The Land of Make Believe. I remember seeing commercials for it when I was 6 or 7 and being absolutely captivated by it.
Worst: In 8th grade, a trip to a local sewage plant. We walked there. We only missed afternoon classes. It smelled really bad. I’m not even sure why we went.
Best: I think it was in 3rd grade, around this time of year. I don’t even know where it was but it involved a pumpkin patch, a hay ride, climbing a big hill, and having a picnic.
(Honorable mention: Not really a field trip but as part of the FIRST Robotics competition, we went to Disney World. A few months before we graduated high school, I got to spend 5 days there with some of my best friends that I had known since 1st grade.)
Most memorable: It was also in 8th grade. In our school, it was a tradition for the graduating 8th grade class to go to Medieval Times. It was June of 1994. The same night, the New York Knicks were playing the Houston Rockets in the NBA finals. We couldn’t miss that game. One guy brought a small portable TV. During the game, they went to a splitscreen to cover a breaking news story. This was the infamous night of the OJ Simpson chase. So we’re eating, watching the Medieval Times entertainment, watching the game, and watching the coverage of the chase. Anytime the news brings up that chase, it takes me right back to Medieval Times.
posted by Kedar on 10-9-2009 at 3:08 pm
1. My art history trip to San Francisco. We spent 4 days going to the MOMA and Legion of Honor. We rode the trolleys around and my group of friends and I got lost, late at night, in one of the scariest parts of SF. Greatest field trip, for me, ever.
2.10/2004- getting ready for my spring semester of college (I didn’t start right out of HS).
10/1999-went through a “finding myself” phase as a freshman in HS.
10/1994-3rd grade…
3.My high school’s rivals were the Jordan Beetdiggers. I really don’t think Utah has a lot of beet fields.
posted by Dani on 10-9-2009 at 3:13 pm
1) an overnight field trip to Space Camp in 8th grade. Nothing says fun like dehydrated ice cream and space dots!
2) 5 years ago I was living in New Hampshire and loathing it. 10 years ago I was 9 months pregnant living in Virginia- wow does time fly!
3)Dunno. I think my HS mascot was a cougar- not worthy of good article reporting.
4) There was a series of books that scared me pretty bad when I was a kid- the stories were okay scary but the pictures are what really got to me!: ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’- link is in my name- tell me those pictures are not freaky!!
posted by Guitaress on 10-9-2009 at 3:15 pm
1. I grew up in a VERY small town in the Sierra Nevada foothills, but our English/Drama teacher was determined to get us cultured at any cost. So he would take us on buses to San Francisco to see theatre. We saw some amazing things over the years (Debbie Allen in “Sweet Charity”, “CATS”, a lot of Shakespeare) but the hands-down best was seeing Carol Channing and Mary Martin in “Legends.” It was the last show Mary Martin did before she passed away, and they were both incredible.
2. Five years ago I was doing what I do now – teaching drama to Middle and High School students at a private all-girls prep school. in the Silicon Valley. Ten years ago I was the Education Director of a theatre company in the Silicon Valley. But fifteen years ago, I was living in Missoula, Montana, singing four part arrangements of show tunes in cowboy bars at night and by day, teaching kindergarten at the Salvation Army. Weirdest year of my life.
3. We have a Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School, named after the wife of the guy who founded Stanford University. Thank goodness it just goes by JLS.
4. I just finished reading Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard” to my 11 year old. I started to regret that around the third time he woke me up with a nightmare. Awesome book, though! I thought it was better than Coraline,
posted by Kristin on 10-9-2009 at 3:37 pm
Guitaress: I totally agree with you on those pictures in those books! They were nearly impossible to check out of the school library – there was a waiting list for them! Always a top seller at book fairs as well. My goodness clicking that link brought back some memories!
posted by sarah on 10-9-2009 at 3:45 pm
1. My school went to NASA, and this stands out because I got sick. It was the time I started to have anxiety issues.
2. On halloween, my husband and I will be celebrating our 5 years together. Ten years ago my parents moved, and it was just after our cat tragically died.
4. Scary Stories were my favorite growing up. I don’t really think they’re very creepy, but the illustrations in the books were. That’s what I remember most.
posted by Christina on 10-9-2009 at 3:52 pm
1. My school went to Kolomoki Mounds state park somewhere in Georgia where we got to see a desecrated “Indian mound” that had been carved up so we could walk around in a cinderblock building and see what they’d buried in there. It was hot and boring.
2. Five years ago I was working at a great, good paying job and not appreciating it like I do now (now that it’s gone). Ten years ago I was getting a divorce and fifteen years ago I was trying to lose baby weight.
3. Surprisingly, since I’m in the deep South, no.
4. My favorite scary book was “The House With A Clock in It’s Walls” by John Bellairs. The great Edward Gorey did the illustrations and it’s about a boy who’s an orphan who’s sent to live with his uncle who’s a warlock. Good stuff.
posted by Donna on 10-9-2009 at 4:01 pm
I went to Vince Lombardi Middle School…but since it was in Green Bay, Wisconsin…I guess it makes perfect sense!
posted by rat on 10-9-2009 at 4:08 pm
Happy Anniversary!
1)In New Mexico, we toured a full hacienda, ruins (Canyon de Chelly), galleries and other things steeped in Native American/Hispanic culture. Absolutely cool.
2) 5 years ago, finding out I was pregnant. 10 years ago, just about to celebrate my first year of sobriety. 15 years ago, I was in school getting my Masters.
4)The Dead Zone, by Stephen King. I still get chills when he describes touching the sleeve of a coat in a restaurant and realizes the owner was going insane and didn’t know it.
posted by Helenann on 10-9-2009 at 4:11 pm
1. In the sixth grade we spent a quarter learning about ground water so we could go to the Ground Water Festival in Grand Island, NE. At the festival we tried soy doughnuts and build a ‘prairie in a cup’. The field trip lasted all day and on the way home we got to stop at Wendy’s for dinner.
2.10 years ago I was in my sophomore year of college, the highlights of which were reading Animal Farm for the first time, meeting a band I really like at the time (at the State Fair – they had cheese on a stick!) and breaking up with my first serious boyfriend.
3. Don’t think so…there aren’t many schools in my area named after people.
4. probably Coraline. I love that book!
posted by vegebrarian on 10-9-2009 at 4:28 pm
my most memorable field trip was the 5th grade trip to the carnegie science center in pittsburgh. It was what every elementary school kid stayed in school for.
Or maybe it was getting lost in the zoo in 3rd grade for spending too long looking at the zebras.
Actually it may have been the 2nd grade trip to visit a place called Old Economy, which is a town set in the 1700s, and we played the olden-time games and ate bread made from an stone oven outside. I want to have kids solely to have a reason to go back there it was so fun.
posted by Katie on 10-9-2009 at 4:50 pm
I went to a rather small private school, and it was more or less tradition at the time, that the 7th grade class always went to Hannibal, MO in the spring. Our school was in a suburb west of St. Louis, so we left at about 7 a.m. for the long drive, stopped at a lock & damn, and saw just about everything in Hannibal Tom Sawyer and Mark Twain related before arriving back at the school around 8 or 9 p.m. We all had so much fun the the cave, and on the steam-powered paddle-wheel boat on the Mississippi.
posted by Mary on 10-9-2009 at 4:53 pm
my favorite field trip was going to Barrier Island, which I think is somewhere outside of Charleston, SC. We went in both the 4th and 10th grade. You stay in cabins by the ocean and go seining, mudwalking, and a variety of other marine classes.
And I ate an anchovie right out of the ocean and got a high five from my biology teacher…
posted by spc on 10-9-2009 at 5:01 pm
We didn’t go on a lot of field trips unfortunately. We went to the Nashville symphony in the 6th grade. Just what 6th graders want: ride on a bus for 2 hours, watch music we didn’t care about, and then take a 2 hour bus ride back. Fun…
I do actually remember me and my friend putting Nerds down the pants of the friend sitting in front of us during the whole trip. THAT was fun.
posted by Kels on 10-9-2009 at 5:01 pm
2:
I can answer most of this question in startling detail because I maintained a journal from June 27, 1994 (13 years old, about to graduate 8th grade) to June 27, 2004 (23 years old, working at my first job out of college). For the first 7 years of that stretch, I wrote in it every single day. My inspirations were Doogie Howser, Doug from the Nickelodeon cartoon of the same name, and my 8th grade teacher who made us maintain one for English class. I don’t know how normal it is to be that young and to keep a journal for that long, but, if nothing else, it helps me answer this question.
Oct. 2004: I was working at my first job with some great people. I was mourning the Yankees collapse to the Red Sox. I worked with a Sox fan, and he brought in doughnuts and coffee when they won the ALCS and the World Series, but I did not have any.
Saturday Oct. 9, 1999: I was a sophomore in college. Two friends and I helped another friend lay down some cement in the backyard of his family’s new house. I got a haircut, hung out at a pizzeria I used to frequent, and made a decision about this girl I really liked at the time. I kid you not, I wrote this: “Hopefully, one day, even if it’s 10 years from now, we’ll hook up, and I’ll be the happiest man in the world.”
Sunday Oct. 9, 1994: I was a freshman in high school. My entire journal entry from that day: “All I did was watch TV and play with my Lego.” October 10th was more eventful: played hockey, read comics, rode bikes, dodged eggs thrown by hooligans, played video games at my friend’s house. To quote Archie and Edith Bunker, “those were the days”.
posted by Kedar on 10-9-2009 at 5:24 pm
The most memorable was when I was in 8th grade, 1971, science class. Our class project was to have a rock collection. They had just built Interstate 10 through the hills in our town (Kerrville, Texas) but had not opened it yet. Our teacher got permission from the highway dept to take us out to one of the big road cuts through the hills. There we found all kinds of fossils of clams and other sea life. It was fascinating to us seeing as how we were some 300 miles from the ocean.
Another memorable one, 2nd grade and a trip to the fire station. They actually let us slide down the fire pole. That would certainly never happen today.
posted by Tex on 10-9-2009 at 5:40 pm
1. Philly Science Museum, 1993; Omni Theatre. I think the presentation was about flight, but I distinctly remember beavers, for some reason? Also, scene of my first kiss (and my mother was a chaperone!)
2. 5 – Completing the thesis for my MA in Film Studies, in Canterbury, Kent, UK. 10 – In the third month of my senior year of high school at a new school in a new state; really had the warm and fuzzies for my parents on that one… 15 – Starting my third month in 7th grade at a new school in a new town… we moved a lot.
4. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark; the illustrations were truly horrific. Two stories in particular – a girl with spider eggs buried in her cheek, and a scarecrow that comes to life and skins its owners – still stand out. (I totally just shivered.)
posted by Megan on 10-9-2009 at 5:55 pm
I just looked at the link from Guitaress, and two of the first three images are the two stories that scared the pants off of me! Right on.
posted by Megan on 10-9-2009 at 5:57 pm
My best field trip probably where we got to sleep overnight at the zoo. We slept under an big dome with a pool over it that the dolphins were in. The main thing I remember that they had awesome french toast for breakfast. During the night, I had to go to the bathroom so I got up and walked there and there was an evil teacher sitting there, watching me. It scared me quite a bit then. In 6th grade, we took a trip to see the Christmas Carol play, and I was the one of the only kids who enjoyed it. I sung along at the end. In 6th grade, we also took trips to basketball related placed that were fairly far away which was fun. That year, we also went to a creepy old hospital that made my throat and head hurt and I felt sickish. I still don’t know why we went there.
posted by Ram on 10-9-2009 at 6:49 pm
1. Turtle Back Zoo and The Land of Make Believe were favorite places to visit with the family as well as Fairy Tale Forest (remember that dump?) My Papa used to tell me the story of Jenny Jump and how she was chased by the Indians and was going to be scalped unless she hurled herself off of the cliff. Great tale to tell a four year old in the middle of the woods! Great school trips included, NYC, Hershey Choc Factory, Washington DC…
There is a three way tie for worst trip. A sewage plant for Environmental Ed @ PSU, Fort Delaware (look it up) in third grade, and the scariest one was in the Lackawanna Coal mine tour in Scranton when I was a chaperone. I turn away for one minute and lose a kind a mile beneath the earth’s surface only to find him hanging over a railing next to a chasm that probably led to the center of the earth!
2. 15 yrs ago, high school and hating it
10 struggling to work full time and put my self through school while living in a crackhouse (well close to one) with my now husband and his brother
5 married for a year, trying to keep a class of 18 five year olds hopped up on sugar still long enough to learn the alphabet while living in a cracktownhome
3. We all had boring schools named after the town or county or what not. There are a lot of Bishop O’ ___’s and such but no one interesting.
4. Well, IT and The Shining were great reads when I was around 10 but right now a very odd one I am reading is Haunted. The cover is very frightening because it glows in the dark and when you leave the book on your bed at night you dream about the horrible face on the cover.
posted by Beffie on 10-9-2009 at 7:19 pm
1. Best Field Trip with Girl Scouts. The Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, OH has Camp-Ins for scouts. It’s a really cool, hand-on science museum. After hours, scouts are given the run of the place and it was really nice not having so many people there that you could actually play with the displays and the workshops were really interesting.
2. I feel old—most of the posts in this area talk about being in school.
Oct 94 – I was a Senior Airman in the USAF at one of the best kept secret bases in England: RAF Chicksands. There weren’t any military planes there. It was a nice quite little base about an hour train ride north of London. I got to go on lots of personal field trips all over England.
Oct 99 – I was a Staff Sergeant in South Dakota kicking myself or leaving England. I really missed all the museums and “culture” that was England.
Oct 04 – I was a Technical Sergeant in Abilene, Texas kicking myself for leaving S. Dakota. I really missed the National Parks with all the wonderful trees and places to hike.
4. Scariest book: for kids: The Ghost of Windy Hill always comes to mind; one of my favorites from childhood. For adults: Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs by T. Harris
Recaptcha: mooning Congress–is that an order?
posted by LadyTaz on 10-9-2009 at 8:37 pm
1. What an awesome question. Led me to think of many of the great experiences I had growing up in Pittsburgh. Two stand-outs: I took a Comparative Religions class while a senior in high school. At least 2 x each month, we would leave school and visit a place of worship in the area. I was able to see beautiful religious and spiritual settings that I never would have had the opportunity to experience otherwise.
Second stand-out: 10th grade, Kennywood, for a physics field trip. Got the work out of the way early and spent the rest of the day hanging out with my friends and having fun.
When I was younger, we would see all the great museums in the city. What a great place to grow up!
2. (2004) – 1st semester of graduate school, mother to an 8-year-old son, working as a therapist in community mental health
(1999) – working toward my bachelor’s degree, mother to a 3-year-old son, working as a part-time secretary in a mental health clinic
(1994) – partying way too much, working as a bank teller (making $6.50/hour! the most ever!), living with my future husband, not thinking about having any kind of successful or meaningful future.
Thank goodness much has changed in the past 15 years!
3. no gots, sorry.
4. Not much into scary stories. I was kind of freaked out by a Stephen King short story, from Nightmares & Dreamscapes. Title is “Dolan’s Cadillac.” Link is on my name. Awesome revenge story.
posted by Lori on 10-9-2009 at 9:57 pm
1. In 4th grade, Candidate for President and Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, visited our little town in NC on a campaign tour. Our Principal thought we should see an actual candidate so we stood in the sun for a good long time before he appeared and we got to shake hands. He said (possibly rhetorically) ” If I git elected….will y’all come visit me in the White House?” We said “Yeah!” and promptly forgot about it….our Principal however did not and sure enough the next school year, after chicken and noodle dinners and tin can collecting, we went to DC and toured all the major sites, met him again and watched him sign legislation in the rose garden and met our Senators AND Representatives AND flew on a airplane for the first time…
best-field-trip-ever!
2. 04 learning how to parent a 2 year old…99 3 years into my teaching career….94 fresh out of the Army and in Grad school
4. IT be Stephen King….for one with severe “clown-a-phobia”,….well, I’m still not really over it….
posted by Mikey on 10-9-2009 at 11:22 pm
best field trip was in 5th grade to fort ross on the california coast. the class was split up into different groups (cooks, arts & crafts, hunter/gatheres, security) and each student had to perform an activity related to that group. i distinctly remember waking up in the middle of the night and wandering down to the fire in the middle of the night and enjoying peanut butter cookies.
worst field trip ever was to skipper’s–a local fast food fish place a la long john silvers. we actually walked there from my elementary school and learned the fascinating behind the scenes goings on of a deep fried fish house. it seemed cool at the time but i was in 4th grade and looking back it was quite the waste of time.
scariest book ever: the exorcist
posted by chris on 10-9-2009 at 11:56 pm
Happy Anniversary, Jason and Mrs. Jason!
1. My eighth-grade class took a trip to the Little White House in Warm Springs, GA, vacation home of FDR. Though it’s a really neat place, I used to live about ten minutes away, so it wasn’t that big of a deal to me. The most memorable thing about the trip, though, was that I got two days of detention for chewing gum on the bus. It was the only time I had detention in all my years of school! That teacher was so mean….
In fifth grade, we visited Westville in Lumpkin, GA, a town that is set in the 1850s. We got to visit the blacksmith, see all kinds of cool artifacts, and got to eat real sugar cane! We spent the bus ride back home gnawing on the sweet (yet fibrous) cane. What a neat place – if you’re in west central Georgia, come visit! Link in my name.
2. Let’s see….five years ago I was getting ready for a weekend of football watching and house cleaning (pretty much the same as this weekend, except now I have a husband, a larger house, and a dog). Ten years ago I was in my senior year of college, so I was probably gearing up for a weekend of football and apartment cleaning. Fifteen years ago I was probably missing my curfew after the high school football game. I love football…
3. One of the elementary schools in my mom’s town is named after the man who used to own the land that the school is built on. It was one of the stipulations that his family made when they sold the land from his estate. Pretty cool idea, I think.
4. I hate scary books and movies, but I did go through a Stephen King phase in seventh grade (much to my husband’s delight). Much like Joey, “The Shining” scared the crap out of me (the freezer trick is a good one!). My husband is reading “It” again (for the millionth time). I don’t know how he can fall asleep every night after reading that, but his tolerance for scary is much higher than mine!
posted by Lynley on 10-10-2009 at 12:18 am
1) in forth grade we went to the zoo during mating season…
posted by Eva on 10-10-2009 at 1:39 pm
best field trip is when my 8t grade trip went to San Francisco. I was approached by a prostitute. At the time it really freaked me out. She looked like a cracked out Cleopatra.
5 years ago I was starting my career at a police officer. 10 years ago I was starting in the Marine Corps. 15 years ago I was in high school.
North of us a high school named their mascot the warriors with a plains american-indian. We live on the coast so some people were offended. They don’t have a mascot anymore, just the name.
I don’t remember the name of the book but it was about this boy was was taken used as a slave at this tavern. I heard it in the 3rd grade.
posted by P. Esh on 10-10-2009 at 11:12 pm
In fourth grade the school board decided to close down our school to make it into offices. Since many of us would never see each other again (they re-districted the city) we had an end of school trip. They took us to the home of Barnum and Bailey in Baraboo, WI. The circus was closed to everyone but us and we were allowed to wander and see everything.
posted by lorelei on 10-11-2009 at 4:01 pm
I was in college, studying to be a teacher. I had a summer job teaching a 4 year old preschool class in the inner city. I took the kids on a field trip of a hayride in the little town where I lived. These kids had never been to the country, and certainly had never seen a horse, touched one or ridden in a hay wagon. They enjoyed it so much, I’ll never forget it. Then two weeks later the farmer’s barn burned and he lost his rig and his two draft horses, and I didn’t have the heart to tell the kids. I think about it still!
posted by Heather on 10-11-2009 at 7:52 pm
1. In 8th grade our German class went to a local German bakery. We left school halfway through the day, and took a bus there. I remember there was a guy playing the accordion, and after we ate we could buy anything from the bakery with our own money. In 1st grade, we also went on an “exploring expedition”, and walked from our school to the nearby wildlife center for our Christopher Columbus unit. It was a lot of fun.
2. Five years ago, I was at a new school. Ten years ago, I had just started kindergarten, which seemed like the scariest place in the entire world at the time. And fifteen years ago, I wasn’t born.
3. I have a few friends who go to Fort Collins High School, and their school mascot is the lambkin.
4. I would have to agree with the original Dracula, by Bram Stoker.
posted by MNP on 10-11-2009 at 9:33 pm
1. I was terribly disappointed to be taking my 3rd grade trip to Atlas Paper Factory (especially since the other 3rd grade class got a pool party or something) but it wasn’t so bad. My grandmother came with & talked throughout the entire tour – it turns out she’d worked there in the 40’s-50’s. We even got free notepads & sketchbooks at the end.
2. Five years – losing my house. Ten years – getting settled in my new house. Fifteen – moving out on my own.
4. It.
Recaptcha : trumps Employment
posted by cookie on 10-12-2009 at 12:41 am
1. Senior year of high school, I was a peer counselor. We took a field trip to a ropes course to learn ‘teamwork.’ Still one of the best days of my life. Everyone was amazed by everyone for some reason or another, and was the first and only time in my life I felt the least bit athletic.
2. Five years ago – Falling in love with my now husband and working at the last job I probably will ever love.
Ten years ago – Just graguated college and figuring out what to do with my life. 10 years later, I’m still trying to figure it out.
Fifteen years – Starting senior year of high school, can’t wait to finish.
4. Kafka’s stories always gave me the shivers. The sadness and futility was too real.
posted by BMC on 10-12-2009 at 12:06 pm
1. My most memorable field trip was going to a museum in Milwaukee in Kindergarten and looking forward to the sandwich my parents packed me for lunch. A teacher accidentaly mixed my lunch bag up with someone else’s and I ended up with a sandwich with a bunch of tomatoes on it ( I hate raw tomatoes). And I remember being so hungry the rest of the day.
2. Five years ago I was still working on my mba degree. Ten years ago I was studying abroad in France for a year, having one of the best times of my life. Fifteen years ago I was a teenager trying to figure out who I was.
3. There was a lot of debate in Madison, WI whether to name an elementary school after the Hmong leader Gen. Vang Pao or not. Ultimately I think they decided against it but I am not sure.
4. I never did like scary anything. I can’t recall reading anything too scary.As an adult reading “Stolen Lives” by Malika Oufkir fascinated me. How scary they her and her family lived in captivity for so long and still survived.
posted by Emma on 10-16-2009 at 2:39 pm