Bear Hugs

Mo’s school hit the Natural History Museum in Lawrence today. I had to go, I wouldn’t miss this one. Of all the field trips I went on as a kid, the only thing that approaches it for vivid memories is Kaleidoscope (Hallmark’s way of co-opting children into the Greeting Card Industrial Complex), and maybe Exchange City (where I got to be a DJ—so damn cool, I wanted to be Johnny Fever).

When I went with Em’s class last year, I was shocked to find out I even remembered the smell of the place. I can picture the biggest of the walruses like a photograph in my childhood memory. Granted, any Cabela’s has a more ambitious taxidermy display, but there wasn’t any such place when I was a kid and there were no field trips to sporting goods stores that I recall.

Cabela’s also lacks walrus.

Most of the kids wore official school shirts, presumably so we wouldn’t lose track of a bunch of third graders who blended in with the college students at KU. It was unnecessary; you could spot our kids a mile away: they were the only kids without white iPod chords coming out of their ears (even ears also pressed to a cell phone).

I think I must not be alone in remembering this as one of the best field trips ever: the first fifteen parents get to go free, the others have to pay a very nominal fee (presumably to offset the cost of booking an extra bus). I responded pretty quickly and I had to pay. I don’t think there was an adult on hand who had more than three kids to look after.

Mo really bonded with the bears. ‘It’s a polar bear! Polar BEAR!!!’

I’ll just have to remember to watch her if I get her someplace like Yellowstone where the bears are still breathing...