Urgh. That reminds me of the “retreat” we did once in high school (Catholic high school). There were a couple options including one that was a weekend away. Nope, not doing that. I opted for one that basically involved a trip to a church an hour away from the high school. I recall only two things about it. The teacher lecturing us about chewing tobacco and his spit can - and the sudden faint smell of cheese that turned into something much worse - a classmate had hurled not too far away. As someone who pretty much never barfs, I did not recognize the aroma right away.
On the fun side: we were on a choir trip to Baltimore. I don’t recall where the boys were staying - but us girls were staying in a convent. At one point we needed to merge into a tight left-turn lane and a carful of guys let us in. We waved enthusiastically and one of the fellows ran up to the car and asked if we wanted to meet up anywhere. One of my friends blurted out that we were going to a convent - to become nuns!
That reminds me of the trip our 4th grade Sunday School class took. The girls spent a long weekend at a convent and the boys stayed at a seminary. I’m sure it was a ploy to lure us into the religious life of nuns and priests. We went to church every morning and were required to wear a dress, then we ate awful food at the cafeteria and then were shown the exciting lives the nuns led. We saw how they pressed their wimples, how they made candles, and we had a sing-along with a guitar playing nun. The highlight was supposed to be swimming at a cabin. When we got there it was deemed to cold to swim, so we made smores. The absolute worst part was the ride home. I was a very quiet, shy kid. So speaking up wasn’t something I did at all. It was a 2-1/2 ride home. About 15 minutes into the ride, I had to pee but of course wouldn’t say anything. I can still feel how horrible it felt to hold my pee for 2-1/2 hours. I thought I was going to die.
Not a school trip, but between 9th and 10th grade, my Girl Scout troop took a van trip to South Dakota, and while we did go to Wall Drug (which we knew even at that tender age was a tourist trap) most of our stops were at roadside museums, which don’t generally interest tweens, and we realized halfway through that it was an excuse for the leaders to take their very spoiled daughter to a place that sold assorted horse supplies, to purchase them in person for her horse.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved these people to death, but they had lost a child before I knew them and overcompensated with the survivor, with disastrous results in the end. I left Scouting a few months later, but not because of the trip; I was now in high school, had a job, was in marching band, etc. and had outgrown the Girl Scouts and something had to go. I was really nervous about telling them, but they were very understanding.
Also, when I was in 7th grade, our junior high band trip was to the director’s hometown, a little burg of 700-odd people in rural Iowa, and we stayed with host families. I personally had a great time, but yeah, other kids said things like “We better $%^^ing GO SOMEWHERE next year.”
I think money was pretty tight and that’s why we went to a place like that, and not to a more distant big city to play at a festival, or the like.
My school district had an “adopt-a-school” program, where local businesses would “adopt” a school. Our school was adopted by a small architectural firm. One field trip was to their office building. I don’t remember many of the details of the field trip, but it was a lot like when Bart Simpson’s class went on a tour of a box factory:
One teacher - possibly inspired by reading about a “take your kids to work” day (then a novel thing) asked parents of classmates who had “interesting jobs” to have the class visit and talk about their jobs.
One trip was to someone who marketed food products. They were launching a new salad dressing but we were asked to keep this important revelation a secret (since obviously ten year olds are adept at this and so are routinely told the good stuff…)
Another was to someone who practised nuclear medicine. Exciting? In practice, we were lectured at while watching someone get an injection, then saw fuzzy blobs on a Commidore 64 showing an intermediate probability of something or other.
I didn’t go but in elementary school a different class went on a “field trip” to a local supermarket an hour before they opened “to learn about how they operate”.
So the field trip was literally driving 5 minutes to a grocery store where they were able to be in it for a FULL hour!
We visited the local sewage treatment plant. I was surprised it didn’t smell worse. We did see a condom, though. I made a mental note to avoid that part of town, though it was out in an area I wouldn’t have gone through in any case.
The worst college field trip was an overnight jaunt to a cave in Missouri, to identify and count insects and certain omnivorous free-living organisms (collembola).
I was in a communications magnet program in high school and our teachers had a weird obsession with the movie Avalon. Took all 120 of us in the class to see it at a local theater.
First time was fun. Was made locally, and one of our classmates actually had a very small part in it.
Second and third times, not so much. By then we knew every time they made us watch the thing, we were going to have to write a bunch of papers about it.
Were you in my school? I was just telling my wife about this thread, and how we went to see 1776 in 1976. (Eighth grade for me). I don’t remember much about the trip or the movie, but I do have a strong memory that I didn’t know we were going until it was time to get on the bus. No prior indication of an upcoming trip, no permission slips, no parental notification, nothing. “Get on the bus - we’re going to Oshkosh.” “OK…”
Most of my claass trips were fun: a cheese factory, Circus World Museum, House on the Rock.
I was in Green Bay, and that’s where we saw the movie (at the Vic Theater*), so only up the road a little bit.
*- A year later, I saw Star Wars for the first time at that same theater. Needless to say, it was a lot more enjoyable, and was not a school field trip.
Gosh, I completely forgot there was one field trip my elementary school class took! I was sick that day and couldn’t go. And it was actually a pretty good one – to the Helms Bakery. You got a cardboard model of their delivery vans (that travelled the neighborhoods and stopped if you put the Helmsman sign in your window) and a miniature loaf of bread. I really was sorry to miss that it.
The only trips like that I took were with my Brownies/GS troop. We went to Adohr Dairies (free ice cream!) and the Globe A-1 Macaroni plant (no samples).
Hey, I got extra credit for setting that up. And it was for my high school biology class. The teacher was thrilled.
Trivia point - LA’s Hyperion treatment plant is often used for TV shoots. It’s got a lot of big pipes, some creepy underground hallways, and sand dunes in the back.
Most boring easily was the trip to West Point. An hour on the bus, wander around the grounds, then an hour back. I did get some nice pictures of the fall foliage but dunno what happened to them; just have one now.
I was just telling my wife about this thread, and how we went to see 1776 in 1976. (Eighth grade for me). I don’t remember much about the trip or the movie, but I do have a strong memory that I didn’t know we were going until it was time to get on the bus. No prior indication of an upcoming trip, no permission slips, no parental notification, nothing. “Get on the bus - we’re going to Oshkosh.” “OK…”