School Days--Wally's Field Trip, Part Three

  School Days is a reoccurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here.

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This week will be a little different with an account of Wally's first grade field trip instead of an interview. I wrote this soon after we returned from the trip, so there's no looking back with nostalgia here. The story is fairly long so it will be posted in three installments. They will follow each other weekly on School Days Mondays. Today is the last installment.

Wally's First Grade Field Trip 

Part One and Part Two found me reluctantly going on the field trip and trying to control some very active first graders as we toured the zoo.

Now for Part Three

A favorite joke on the bus ride home.

After continually hearing that they were hungry, we stopped for a snack at noon. Before the trip, the chaperones agreed that we would buy each child one treat. They could chose one thing from the zoo snack shop and everyone in my group chose ice cream. The first thing that they had agreed upon all day. However, they didn't seem to understand the one treat per child policy. After they finished their ice cream, they said that they were thirsty and asked if they could have a soda. When I showed them where the water fountain was, the used the, “Everyone else got to have a snack and drink,” argument on me. When that didn't work, they tried to make me feel bad by saying, “I wish I was in a different group.” As soon as they figured out that I was unyielding, they all had a long drink from the water fountain.

When our snack was finished, we headed for our ever important stop at the gift shop. Jessica finally purchased two small plastic animals with her money after receiving a lot of advice from the other group members. It was almost one o'clock by now and time to head back to the front gate to load the bus. I was glad the trip was almost over because I was exhausted.

The bus ride back to the school was a little more subdued than the ride in the morning had been, so I guess the kids were tired too. Krystal and Pink Feather weren't talking to each other because of something that had happened in the gift shop. However, they insisted on sitting together. Many of the kids were delighting in telling riddles. I actually found this riddle funny--Why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 (ate) 9.

But the kids found their version equally funny--Why was 2 afraid of 3? Because 3 ate 4.

The trip was officially over at 2:15 when the kids followed their teachers back into their classrooms. As I was driving to pick up Theodore from the sitter, I realized that the trip had been successful. Even though it hadn't left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling, I had managed to survive the entire experience without the need of a single aspirin. Having children has taught me to appreciate the small things in life and surviving six hours on a first grade field trip was one of them.