# What's the first school field trip you remember going on?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 5, 2017, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066 "2017-10-05T22:31:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2017, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/1 "2017-10-05T22:31:28Z")
My kindergarten class went to a farm. I remember we had to be very quiet in the barn, so we wouldn’t upset the chickens which would keep them from laying eggs, or so we were told.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/2 "2017-10-05T22:44:14Z")
My kindergarten class also went to a nearby farm, including riding a horse. I was petrified, and held back to being the last one called. So of course the class picture was taken with me on the horse, petrified.
I still have that photo, 67 years later.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/3 "2017-10-05T22:55:23Z")
I went to school in Baltimore county. The first school trip I recall was 5th grade to Washington, DC.
In 7th or 8th grade, we went to Hershey, PA - after going to a museum and the chocolate factory, we spent the afternoon in the park. Good times.
This was all in the mid-60s. Class trips were a huge, expensive deal.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/4 "2017-10-05T23:06:18Z")
[The visitor’s center](https://www.duke-energy.com/energy-education/energy-centers-and-programs/world-of-energy-at-oconee-nuclear) of a nuclear power plant.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/5 "2017-10-05T23:09:49Z")
When I was in first grade, our class went to a dairy farm. I don’t remember much about it, except we watched them hooking up cows to the milking machine.
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/6 "2017-10-05T23:13:28Z")
A box factory.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/7 "2017-10-05T23:25:58Z")
Second grade. I don’t remember if the dairy or the bakery was first. This was a local, small factory type bakery. There were in-class activities the next day. For the dairy we made butter and for the bakery we made a batch of bread.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2017, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/8 "2017-10-05T23:27:50Z")
In kindergarten we walked three blocks to a grocery store. Well, not a lot of farms near where I grew up.
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### Author:  [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/9 "2017-10-05T23:31:00Z")
Train ride from Toledo Ohio to somewhere in Michigan (Temperance?). Not far.
Also to the Toledo Zoo. Not the same trip but around the same time.
Forgot to mention this was in the early 60s, Toledo Ohio.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/10 "2017-10-06T00:13:33Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#):
>
> A box factory.
Did you _really_ go to a box factory, or is this a Simpsons reference that you will be disappointed if nobody catches?
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### Author:  [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/11 "2017-10-06T00:20:46Z")
It was the Field Museum in Chicago. I thought that was why they called it a field trip. 2nd grade, I believe.
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### Author:  [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/12 "2017-10-06T00:23:33Z")
I don’t remember the first trip I was on, not being able to recall even a single one with any clarity at all. Well, I remember taking a trip into Minneapolis to go to the Art Museum in conjunction with my art history class in college, and I’m fairly sure I had a similar one to Detroit in high school for the same reason, but those are clearly not the first field trips I was ever on. In sixth grade our science class went as a class a few blocks down the street to a park to do some nature exploration, but I’m fairly sure we were back within the end of the normal period so that hardly counts.
But I do remember in kindergarten where most of the class went to a fire station (I think), and I somehow was left behind. That I do remember. What I did the rest of the day that day though, I have no idea.
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### Author:  [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/13 "2017-10-06T00:25:20Z")
The first one I remember was to the now defunct [Hough Bakery](https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/274) in Cleveland. I also remember [Hale Farm](https://www.wrhs.org/plan-your-visit/hale-farm/) and [Stan Hywet Hall](http://www.stanhywet.org/), but pretty sure those were later.
The summer before I was in 6th grade, I remember my mom enrolling me in a summer school class that met weekly, and was all field trips, but I cannot now remember a single place we visited. Doesn’t say much for that program, I guess!
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/14 "2017-10-06T00:26:58Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Did you _really_ go to a box factory, or is this a Simpsons reference that you will be disappointed if nobody catches?
While it IS a simpsons reference, I wouldn’t have cared if nobody caught it. HOWEVER, when i think back to my earliest field trip, that episode is as far back as I can remember, so it sorta is an honest answer too…sorta.
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### Author:  [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/15 "2017-10-06T00:41:10Z")
A kindergarten trip to LAX when it had recently been modernized in the 60s - the central theme restaurant was positively futuristic at the time. We got to go to one of the terminal building roofs to watch the jets (still a kind of new idea) taking off. Wow!
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/16 "2017-10-06T01:25:33Z")
I don’t know if it was the first one, but one of the earliest I remember was to the local Wonderbread bakery, to see all the loaves being made. I _think_ the same fieldtrip we did a tour of the local Coca-Cola bottling plant.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Terrific](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Terrific)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/17 "2017-10-06T01:48:28Z")
The only field trip I was ever on was to Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. It was towards the end of 6th grade. My hometown didn’t seem to go on many field trips.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/18 "2017-10-06T01:48:39Z")
My pre-school went to a kosher deli.
McDonald’s was doing a thing where they invited preschools and kindergartens to visit, and every kid got a free meal. I went to a Jewish preschool, so they arranged for us to visit a kosher deli, and we got a lesson in separate stoves, refrigerators, etc. We were like, 3, and so bored. But the free food was fun. It was a dairy day, which was why they invited us, I think. Dairy days were a little less crowded. We got blintzes, fruit salad, and chocolate milk. It was really very good. We all got a wrapped bagel with cream cheese to take home, too. No one in the class was lactose intolerant, gluten-free, allergic to chocolate, or any of the fruit. I don’t think you could do a trip like this anymore.
Later, I got better stuff. Every other year in elementary school, we went to the Natural History museum, and in intermediate school, we went to the MOMA, and the other art museums. Once I saw the rare books at the JP Morgan library. One Halloween (or, a couple of days before), there was an afterschool trip to a film house to see several classic Universal monster movies on the screen. Turns out those movies were only about 75 minutes each, so a bill of four was shorter than _GWTW._
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### Author:  [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/19 "2017-10-06T02:05:22Z")
My kindergarten class took a train trip to the next town (about 15 miles) on Nov 22 1963.
I probably wouldn’t remember but my mom was one of the parents meeting us to drive us back to our town, and she was in tears (as were the other moms) when they met us on the platform. Now, THAT made a big impression.
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### Author:  [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-school-field-trip-you-remember-going-on/798066/20 "2017-10-06T02:30:21Z")
We went to one of the city newspapers (I think it was the Ottawa Journal - now defunct). I remember them showing us one of the huge curved type castings used to print a sheet of the paper and being very impressed by the high speed that the huge rolls of newsprint moved through the press. We were given a pulp paper impression of the casting which was displayed in our classroom for the rest of the year.
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