My Life - Chapter 42 - Field Trips

Vilas Zoo, 8/16/2015
dwm photo

 My favorite field trips?  Green Meadows Farm and the State Capitol.

 I was in first or second grade when my class at St. Paul Lutheran went to Green Meadows Farm.

 Until that day I hadn't been on a school bus.  Mom packed a good lunch with an orange drink, sandwich, and a few cookies.  After we learned about animals from the farmer and took a hay ride, we sat around picnic tables on the green meadow that made the farm famous.

 I always thought the farm was a short drive from Janesville, but if the same farm is still going it's further than I thought.  Wherever it is, I remember it as a magical place where we had a great time and a cool experience for a 6 or 7 year old.

 Our fourth grade class trip to Madison was just as memorable.

First, we earned our way to Madison by selling seed packets.  I remember going door to door like I did selling Christmas wrap.

Wisconsin's Capitol. 8/4/2012
dwm photo

Making the sales meant I paid my own way which was a pretty cool thing for a kid and meant I was literally invested in the journey.

Madison wasn't a long ride from Janesville so we had time to do several things.  We went to the Capitol for a tour, saw the animals in the Henry Vilas Zoo, and ate lunch at A & W on Park Street.

There were other trips as I got older - two high school trips stand out - one to Chicago as part of an Economics class where we visited the Board of Trade and the Sears Tower.  

The other was senior year when students in that year's Shakespeare play went to Schubert Theater to see the musical, Evita.

It was an amazing production with Mandy Patinkin as Che Guevara.  

Trips in middle and high school weren't the same as climbing on a bus with my elementary classmates.  By the time we were that age we thought we were too cool and unwilling to really experience the moment, which is why those moments on the farm and in the capitol are still fresh today.