My elementary school teachers enjoyed taking all of their students out on field trips. These little one day trips were great, as it was a chance to get out of the stuffy classroom to see the real world. Generally, we went on maybe two or three fields trips a year.
Most commonly, the teacher would load us all into a school bus, and we’d soon find ourselves in a nice field or some other nearby habitat. Then the teacher would walk around with us, explaining things as we went.
For example, one teacher bused us all over to Little Mountain, which was a large hill on the other side of town. This hill was bare, not a single tree or house was on it’s flanks. It was covered with sagebrush, grass and shrubs.
We’d then wander around with the teacher, as she pointed out various elements of the landscape. "These are rabbit droppings", she say, "and these are the bones of a large rodent, maybe a rat."
While the trips to the outdoors were great, the trips that I remember the most are those to various manufacturing facilities. My favorite was when the teacher took us on a tour of the San Bernardino Sun Telegram.
The Sun Telegram was the newspaper for San Bernardino. The plant was located downtown, and seemed, to us, to be the hugest thing we children had ever seen in our lives. A portly, bearded man guided us through the entire operation.
We started from the beginning - by meeting some reporters. Our guide introduced us to a kindly old gentleman, who explained what reporters do all day. Then we saw the rest of the operation.
We were awed by the linotype machine, and were thrilled when the operator gave us each a sample of the machine’s product. I still have that piece of linotype. We were amazed when we saw the tremendous printing presses, and the huge rolls of paper. That was one great field trip!
Another time, we went to a bottling plant - I think it was a Coca-Cola plant. This was a fascinating experience for a young boy. I was amazed by everything from the bottle washers to the bottle fillers on the other end of the line.
On yet another field trip, the entire class visited the basement of the local Sages department store. This was fascinating. We saw how they print the signs, how the shelves are stocked, how merchandise is unloaded, sorted and stored.
I remember going on many field trips while in elementary school. As I progressed into the higher grades, however, they became less and less frequent, until, by Junior High School, they were completely absent. In fact, I didn’t go on a single field trip from the start of junior high school to my ecology class in high school, a span of some five years.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.