- Riding the Rails
During the 1960s and 1970s when I was teaching in Hayward, California, field trips were the name of the game. We took our classes almost anyplace and anytime we wanted, as long as the trip was related to what we were studying. We went by private car or public transportation. The school district funded many of the trips; parents kicked in for the rest. Neither funding nor liability seemed to be issues.
Taking kids places was my favorite way to teach. Whether it was a day in San Francisco’s Chinatown, or a trip to Half Moon Bay to explore the tide pools, or an afternoon at the Geary Theater to see ACT’s production of “The Merchant of Venice” – each was a memorable, hands-on learning experience that couldn’t have been replicated with textbooks and chalkboards.
So this past Saturday when ten of us from Oysterville went on a “field trip” to Astoria, I was ecstatic. Our hosts were the Lower Columbia Preservation Society. They had arranged the trip as a kind of reciprocation for an event we’ve hosted for them here in Oysterville for the past several Septembers. Ours is about oysters and the history of bayside living; theirs concerned the Astoria riverfront– past, present, and future.
We gathered first at the Coffee Girl cafe, which we later learned was named for an actual job description in the days that fish canneries dominated the riverfront. It was “the coffee girl” who brought the break-time coffee around to the cannery workers each morning and afternoon. Hers was an important and respected position.
At eleven sharp, we boarded the Astoria Riverfront Trolley at its 39th Street terminus and, between our two groups, we filled every seat. Our guide for the next hour was Brett Estes, Community Development Director for the city of Astoria.
The stops we made and sites and sights he pointed out along the way were tailored to our particular interests in preservation – what had been along the riverfront historically, what still remains, how adaptive uses are being made, and what the plans for future development are. It was an information-packed ride. When we returned to 39th Street, we were treated to a guided tour of the old Bumble Bee Cannery facility which is now a museum.
As if all that wasn’t enough, we regrouped at Baked Alaska for a no-host lunch in our own dining room where we could continue our conversations. And, to top it all off, we were presented with free passes to the Flavel House.
What a day! It was a field trip to remember and, for me, especially pleasurable because all I had to do was get there. The arrangements, the planning, the timing, were all managed by someone else. Thanks to Pam Chestnut, Vice-President of the Lower Columbia Preservation Society, it all went like clockwork. It’s no doubt presumptuous of me, but I’m already looking forward to next year’s adventure…
What fun! I love going to Astoria and this sounds like a special treat. I enjoy going to the Flavel House the most.
When we lived in the Bay Area in the ’80s I loved going on field trips. I couldn’t afford to see things any other way. One time we rode a school bus from Union City to San Francisco, then a ferry, and then BART back to Union City as part of a transportation unit with Frank’s class. As a measure of his “stuff” Dave accompanied me on a field trip with Nadir from Ocean Park School all the way to the Portland Zoo and back with a busload of kindergartners. Dave passed and we kept him.