High School Trips

     Our high school trips were overnight trips, and in late spring of 1971, our high school organized an overnight freshman trip at the New Jersey Shore. The busses took us first to Atlantic City. By the early 1970s, AC was almost a shell of itself from its heydays of the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Nevertheless, we did get to see a talent show on the main stage at the old Steel Pier, ride some of the amusements on Steeple Chase Pier, and visit a mid-sized wax museum as well as buy salt-water taffy, fudge, and peanuts—and walk the Boardwalk. Later, the busses drove us south to Ocean City to spend the night at a motel there. (I realize now that this was a smart move on the part of the school because Ocean City is a dry town. Therefore, there was no danger of underage students sneaking into bars and liquor stores [off-license].) In Ocean City, we rode more amusement rides, walked the boardwalk as well as the beach.

     For our sophomore trip in 1972, we stayed overnight in Philadelphia at the Holiday Inn in Old City or the historic district. I was surprised to hear that a few of the students had never been to Philly! Thus, I led a few of them toward different historic sites in the area starting with Independence Hall. Back then, you could still see the Liberty Bell there, and we toured the Betsy Ross House. The National Park Service was in the process of further restoring or reconstructing different buildings in time for the Bicentennial in 1976. The next day, the busses took us to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Again, the staff here was in the process of renovating a good portion of the museum. Therefore, we saw some American and European paintings and statues, as well as a few period rooms from the USA and Europe. Of course, some of the guys spent quite a bit of time looking at the statue of Diana the Huntress. (She is naked and used to be on top of the Madison Square Garden located near Madison Square Garden Park from the early 20th century until the mid-1920s, when another Madison Square Garden in the Theater District in NYC replaced it. Hence, the Philly Art Museum obtained Diana.) Several of us laughed at some of the nude statues and paintings ourselves.

     It was spring 1973 and our junior trip was to New York City for the night. A sizeable number of students have never been to NYC (I had been there three times by then, not counting the 1964 World’s Fair.), so after we unloaded our luggage at the Statler- Hilton (This hotel is now back to its old name: Pennsylvania.), the adult chaperones had us line up to walk to the Empire State Building. After we all had a chance for a view from the top, we were, somewhat, on our own. Again acting like a tour guide, I led a small group to a few different stores: Macy’s, Woolworth’s, Gimbal’s, and a few other shops in the area. We were also under orders to be back at the hotel by 9 p.m.—or the chaperones would call the police--so were back in time. (There was no wild nightlife for us!) The next day, we boarded our busses for the United Nations. Here, we took a tour of the UN complex, and we did some more shopping in the UN gift shop before heading home.

     My final school trip, in my senior year of high school, 1974, we headed to Washington, DC. Thus, we visited some of the Smithsonian museums in the Mall—we could pick anywhere within the Mall to visit. (I visited the Arts & Industry Building that day.) Later, as per orders from the chaperones, we met in front of the Smithsonian Castle and boarded our busses to take us to our hotel: Harrington Hotel. The next day, it was back to the Mall to check out more sights around there. (I visited the American Museum of History and Technology—now it they call it the American History Museum.) I have full reports on all of the places that I visited during my high school trips—but the reports take place later—in my publications that are downloadable from my web site.