In general, I am hard-pressed to think of a school field trip that was somehow “bad” as to its content. We had lots of field trips in elementary and middle school, sometimes to really cool places like the Ontario Science Centre or in Grade 6, the courts. In high school, field trips became a rare treat (on average once a year at most). However, here’s one situation that comes to my mind:
The zoo. Yes. Not at school per se, but when I was 7 during March Break (1987), I was at a daycare/day camp. One day, we went to the Metro Toronto Zoo. A great venue to be sure; the thing was, as a kid, I got thirsty easily. While we were there, I got thirsty, but had no drink packed and no money either. I spent the whole visit hoping a water fountain or something would appear. As we were leaving, I noticed a can of Diet Coke on a picnic table. I rushed over to it and managed to take a sip from it…but then another kid knocked it out of my hand, as I recall under the pretext that my drinking from someone else’s can was unhygienic. Finally, we got back to the school or (YMCA or wherever else the daycare was.) I rushed to the water fountain…and so did two other boys who had the same issue. They got in line before me. One of them said: “I’m going to drink the Pacific!” I took him seriously and groaned internally. Finally, my turn came and I could quench my thirst.
The experience actually put me off the thought of going to the zoo as labor-intensive for some time after. The next time I was there, I was a teenager and yes, the Toronto Zoo really is a cool venue.
We took a class trip to NYC when I was ~10yo. Going to the top of the Empire State buiding and having lunch in Chinatown was fun. But stopping at a red light in our bus, was not fun.
A young adult street-person approached my open window (it was a hot day). I thought he was being friendly, so I said, “hi.” Then, he wound up and pitched a big raw potato at my head, leaving me with a large welt on my forehead.
…who say’s New Yorkers aren’t friendly?!?
A big chimpanzee drenched me thoroughly with pee at the Philadelphia Zoo on another trip. That wasn’t much fun, either.
Oh, man, I just realized that Wright-Patterson AFB was named for the Wright Bros. I knew they were from Dayton, and I knew the AFB was in/near Dayton (my mom worked there for a year or two in the 40s), but I only just now made the connection.
I went to Greenfield Village and the Ford Museum with an online friend that I met up with. She was a high school teacher, so does that count as a school field trip?
Living in North Jersey, I learned through numerous field trips that George Washington slept in a lot of places. After the first one, you realize you’re just visiting some old houses.
Of course, the best field trips were our annual French class trips to a French restaurant in NY. In fact, that’s the only reason I took French, as the other language classes didn’t have such trips. Just the fun of reading the porn movie titles on the theater awnings was worth it. The French teachers were not amused. Those, and annual full class trips to Six Flags were the highlights of my elementary school experiences.
For more Wright Bros. trivia, not far from me is Selfridge Air National Guard base, named after a guy who was the very first plane crash fatality— he was a passenger in a plane Orville Wright was flying. Orville was injured but lived.
Similarly, I grew up 90 minutes from Niagara Falls. So we’d been there as a family, plus due to various circumstances (redistricting plus a move) I was in three different elementary schools in three years and happened to hit a field trip to NF each time.
The third year, I had just fallen off my bike and my arm was in a sling; I was in no mood to spend three hours on a bus. So my mom told the school I wouldn’t be going. That set off a firestorm with the school, who wanted to call it an “unexcused absence”. She told them to do whatever they wanted, but I wasn’t going. Somehow they figured it out.
Other than the one I posted about in the “Best Field Trip” thread, I can’t remember the field trips we took in school. I know we did because I remember getting permission slips signed but none of them seem to have stuck with me, apparently. I’ll mention a Girl Scout trip to the Japanese Deer Park where, while I was in the petting zoo area, a goat stole and ate my brown paper sack lunch. Foil wrapped soda and all. It was so humiliating.
Ha, I wasn’t sure if anybody would get that. On the days my mom would include a can of soda in my lunch (usually only on field trip days) she would wrap foil around it to keep it cold.
I’m honestly not sure! I think so (?) I’ve never been too fussy about my soda being super cold (for instance, I don’t use ice) so it was cold enough for me. Interesting question for someone who knows about those types of things though.
Not truly awful, but pretty meh: I went to a Catholic school, and a couple of times we got to go to a movie: one was The Cross And The Switchblade, and another one was anti-drug including showing a fellow who had just overdosed on HEROIN (gasp).
In 8th grade we had a class trip to Washington, DC (this was from Pennsylvania - so not quite as meh as someone from Baltimore). We went 3 places: the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (huge, and kinda pretty), some catacombs (fake, though I don’t think we knew that at the time), and a very brief trip to one of the Smithsonian museums. Hey, it was a day away from classes.
Most of mine were pretty good. I guess if I had to pick ‘the worst’ it would be the indoor circus.
Freakin’ circus in the Frank Sinatra Showroom of the Cal-Neva Club. Small, I remember it being hot, and man, did it reek in there! There were 2 elephants (Bertha and Tina) and thouroughly shit the place up.
I wasn’t too impressed with the Dot-So-La-Lee exhibit in the State museum. I mean, how many woven baskets can you expect a 10-year old to look at and remain interested? Well, I can tell you, Brother. It was hundreds!
When I was in fifth grade, we had a field trip to see the circus, which was in the Brown County Arena (i.e., indoors), in Green Bay.
My primary recollection of that show was one of the elephants, indeed, leaving a very large dropping in the middle of his performance. The girl sitting down the row from me had just bitten into a Tootsie Roll, and when she saw this, the power of suggestion led her stomach to insist on emptying itself.
As part of a week-long field trip to Teignmouth, we went in a bus to a farm on Dartmoor. It was socked in with fog, and we didnt even get off the bus. The farmer came onto the bus and talked for a bit. That was that.
Not a field trip exactly, but I was one of those lucky (2nd grade as it happens) students that had a TV wheeled into the classroom to watch the Challenger explode live.
Oh hell yes! Sort of like the “a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work” adage.
I recall when class trips were upcoming, as a behavioral incentive ( read: threat of punishment ) we were warned that anybody who acted up would not be going on the class trip, but would instead attend the class with the rest of the school. Hell, it was almost like having a three day weekend yanked away from you.
