Field Trips

These were great.  No class that day.  No homework the next day.  We would go to some new and exciting place.  Everything about field trips was neat.  I have a few that I remember and I want to share them with you.  You may have some that were fun and interesting as well.  Rule number one, be sure to get the permission slip signed.  Anyone left behind because of no permission slip, well that was definitely like being in purgatory.  None of us knew what happened to those left behind.  We didn’t speak of such things.  Well, I can assure you that I wasn’t ever left behind.  No purgatory for me.  The first field trip I remember was going to a big pig farm.  They had those pigs that were black and white (kind of pink).  I was shocked to find out how clean everything was.  Dispelled all of my thoughts of what a pig farm would be like.  I mean they had flowers growing, the tractors were spotless, even the pigs were clean and we saw a sow with about 15 little piglets all having a meal at the same time on mom.  There was fresh hay, fresh food for the pigs.  I had a glorious day.

Another great field trip was to a big bakery.  We saw them make loaves of bread.  All the various stages and finally watched them package the loaves.  The scent of fresh bread baking was intoxicating.

We went to Stephen’s Dairy.  This was where they processed milk and best of all Ice Cream.  On this trip we each got one of those little cups of ice cream that you ate with this little wooden spoon.  Again wonderful.

The last one was a little different.  We went to the Kansas School for the Blind.  They produced a number of different products.  One of those products was door mats.  I mean, all of these people were blind.  It was amazing that they were able to make these matts.  I unfortunately got too close to one of the workers and got creamed with one of the mats.  Probably because he couldn’t see me.  Duh!!  It hurt and I was reminded of the dangers of getting too close.  No bandages were needed… it did hurt for a while, but after all this was a field trip and that, in and of itself was very cool, so some minor mishap wasn’t going to dampen my spirit.  I still looked forward to the next one – wherever that might take me.

School Supplies

Each year we had to buy school supplies.  For me and my sister this was pretty special.  It was almost an event.  I am not sure where my mother got the list but we always had one to fill.  As I recall the following items were essential:  A Big Chief Tablet, #2 pencils, a couple of big pink erasers, a pack of construction paper (multi-colored), a bottle of glue with one of those rubber tops with a slit in it (go figure), a jar of paste.  The cap had a brush attached so you could get the paste out.  Do they still have paste? A box of crayons, we always wanted the box that had 64 crayons that included silver and gold ones, a pencil box (?) with a pencil sharpener, and a lunch pail.

Here’s the thing about school supplies.  They were a real equalizer.  It didn’t really matter if you were from the haves or the have nots, it was difficult to differentiate yourself from the pack when it came to school supplies.  The only area where you could was in the area of crayons, pencil boxes or lunch pails.  The most obvious was crayons.  You could show up with a basic set of crayons, or the cool box with all the extra colors.  You could make a statement with your pencil box.  Larger, longer, great color, etc.  And finally your selection of a special lunch pail as opposed to a brown bag was the final and most impressive way to become the envy of your classmates.  I opted for the school lunch so I didn’t need to impress my friends with a designer lunch box and matching thermos.  To be honest, I don’t think when it came to school supplies, that any designers were actually involved… hence the point that these things were social equalizers.  We all had pretty much the same things.  One last item that I think was prevalent was the penmanship tablet.  We subscribed to the Palmer Method.  The lines were a little different in the penmanship tablet than in the Big Chief Tablet and, of course, the penmanship tablet was used exclusively for writing letters and eventually learning the proper cursive strokes.  I don’t think the kids today have ever seen or even deal with proper penmanship… that might have a negative impact on their self-esteem.  Don’t get me started.

The Tonsillectomy

When I was in the fourth grade I was subjected to a tonsillectomy.  The biggest word I had heard to that point in my life.  Here is how it came to be.  I went to the doctor’s office with my mother for a routine visit.  Our doctor was A.F. Wittman.  He was a general practitioner. He actually was our family doctor for many years.  On this particular day we went into his exam room, again for a routine visit.  He put the tongue depressor into my mouth and looked down my throat.  As I remember it he took the tongue depressor out of my mouth, threw it into a trash can and literally exclaimed to me and my mother that I needed to have my tonsils removed… and quickly.  I am wondering if this means now or what?  As it turned out, he would schedule it for some time soon.  He told my mother that she needed to start feeding me a lot of jello so I will not bleed excessively because of the procedure.  Remember, this is how I remember it.  My mother stopped at the store on the way home and bought copious amounts of jello.  The stock price of jello probably got a boost because of her purchases.  I had jello morning, noon and night and it was also the sum total of all snacks for me until the operation.  As I recall it, prior to the procedure they took some of my blood and put it in a thin glass tube, broke the tube and my blood was elastic.  No fear of bleeding out…. my question is… can you overdose on jello?  It is probably not a possibility but clearly the jello did its job.  I go into the operating room for the procedure and was bothered by the banter of the people involved.  They were talking about anything but my tonsillectomy, there was also music playing. I was thinking they are not taking this very seriously.  Then they needed to put me to sleep.  At that time they used ether.  You may not be familiar with this anesthetic.  Websters defines it as, “a pleasant smelling colorless volatile liquid that is highly flammable.  It is used as an anesthetic and as a solvent or intermediate in industrial processes.”  Really?  I can vouch for the fact that it is anything but pleasant smelling.  What they did to administer this product was put a screen over my mouth and nose and drip ether onto the screen.  I was ask to count backwards from 100 and I went to sleep.  I don’t think I got past 97 and I was out – but something very strange happened.  As I started breathing in this (pleasant smelling) stuff everything in the room began turning in a spiral circle.  Everything turned clockwise, it was crazy.  Then everything started turning counter clockwise in a spiral and I came out from under.  Absolutely unbelievable.  To this day I am surprised by that outcome.  The only thing I remember in recovery was an extremely sore throat and that I was given popsicles to lick. Shortly afterward I went home with my mom and dad.

The other thing that I found out later was that in addition to taking my tonsils (whatever they are)  they also took my adenoids (whatever those are).  I was told later that I didn’t need them anyway.  Whatever… I am not aware of any issues caused by their removal so I am going to accept the fact that I didn’t need them anyway.   From beginning to end I was probably at the hospital for 4 hours and home with a very sore throat.

What I didn’t know was that my fourth grade teacher had given an assignment to my classmates to write me letters since I was having my tonsils removed.  These letters were all written on paper from their Big Chief Tablets with, of course #2 pencils.  Most of them were addressed to Robert or Bobby.  Most of them were telling me that they wanted me to get well so I could get back to class.  Some of them were much darker.  I don’t know what instructions were given by my teacher but there obviously had been a breakdown in communication from the teacher to some of my classmates.  I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they simply didn’t know what a tonsillectomy was.   I was probably going to be out for a day or two.  At the end of the day I had a sore throat.  I didn’t even spend one night in the hospital.  I got letters that said… “it was nice knowing you.”   Letters that suggested that they were sorry that I wouldn’t make it back to 4^th Grade.  I also got the impression from some of these well meaning friends that arrangements were probably being made for my funeral and that they were very sorry. No one sent me flowers so the well wishers didn’t end up following through on their deep feelings of sympathy.   My sister and I read these letters a few years later and let’s just say it would have made a very funny book.  We laughed until we couldn’t laugh anymore.  I don’t want to down play how great it was to get those letters even if it was an assignment.  What a great thing to have happen for all those kids to pour out their genuine feelings to me.  I hope none of them were scarred because of the trauma.

One final point.  I spoke to my sister recently about the tonsillectomy and she remembered that after I came home there was this lingering odor of… you guessed it… ether.  She said that it was a sickening smell and that there was some discussion among my sister, mom and dad that the smell made them a bit drowsy.  Again she is recalling this from decades later.  It wouldn’t surprise me, that stuff was awful.  I trust that it is no longer in use to put people to sleep.  It could have the same effect as reading about my tonsillectomy.