My First Field Trip

My mom recycled before recycling was cool.

This morning while packing my daughter's sack lunch for her field trip, a flood of memories from my childhood field trips filled my head. There was one very vivid one in particular. I don't remember what grade I was in. Maybe second or third grade. But I remember I was going to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) Zoo in Portland, Oregon. I was so excited to be traveling to Portland and even more excited to go to the zoo. I couldn't wait to see the exhibits and experience the zoo because truthfully the only times I got to go were through school outings.

My mom was a single mom raising four children. She had a sixth grade education and English was her second language. She was born in Crystal City, Texas but began working as a migrant farm worker about the same age I began going on field trips. She traveled from Texas through Colorado into Washington and eventually settled in Washington where she met my father. 

Their relationship did not last and my mom was twenty-five with four children and very limited options for work which limited our budget. We simply were unable to enjoy activities requiring any expenses such as travel or admittance fees, so this field trip was an adventure. An escape. A world beyond Adair Village, Oregon. 

To be honest I don't really remember much of the field trip other than lunch. I think the event was so universally encompassing that the impressions I got were what any child would walk away with. What made this field trip stand out for me was not the actual trip but rather the lunch my mom packed me. I was so excited to have a sack lunch because being a free-lunch child I seldom got a sack lunch. I always had the hot school lunches and envied my friends with their hostess cupcakes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and super hero thermos. I wanted a Scooby-Doo lunchbox with a matching thermos but instead I got the colored lunch tickets. This field trip brought me my first sack lunch. 

I remember sitting on the ledge of a cement wall. I believe it was a landscaped area outside of the entrance and I remember excitedly opening my sack lunch only to find a folded tortilla with peanut butter and jelly wrapped in foil and a Golden Griddle bottle filled with Tang. There were no hostess. No chips, no soda. Nothing except mom's tortillas and Tang. I remember someone jokingly making a comment about my Golden Griddle Tang bottle. I laughed it off and I think I was able to play it off well because my classmates liked me and I don't think they truly wanted to hurt my feelings. 

But I was disappointed. I was sad. I was embarrassed. I was ashamed.

Looking back now I know my mom gave us everything she could. We were poor but we weren't without and today I just wanted my daughter to not stand out. I wanted to spare her the sadness I felt on that first special day. My first field trip.  

So today I made sure to pack my daughter a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread, a banana, strawberries, trail mix, and a Hansen's soda. No one noticed her lunch. No one made any comments. She simply blended in with the rest of the students.