Looking Back: Field Trips

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society

Do you remember your school field trips?  When I was in sixth grade, my class went to the Wonder Bread Bakery and the Coca Cola Bottling Company.  We got on the big yellow bus and headed for Kansas City. At lunchtime we stopped at a park and ate our sack lunches, which we washed down with Kool-Aid provided by our room mothers. We looked forward to the “educational” trip for weeks and had a great time.
           
But the big treat came in high school.  Every year, on the next to the last day of school, all four classes, freshmen through seniors, and our teachers headed west for a day at Swope Park and the Kansas City Zoo. My senior year (1964) there were 143 students, 13 teachers, and our principal and we all fit into one building.
 
Our principal, Mr. Malone, drove one of the buses! It was before I-70 was built, so we headed west on U. S. Highway 40.  To get to the park we turned on Sterling Boulevard, drove through Raytown to 63rd Street and on to the park. After an entire day at the zoo, playing baseball (watching the guys play), eating popcorn and cotton candy, and buying souvenirs, we headed back to school, arriving just in time to go home!
 
This week, the Grain Valley Historical Society hosted the 7th grade history classes from South Middle School (next week we will welcome North Middle School, and the following week we will host students from GVHS) for the Smithsonian Exhibit, Voices and Votes. About half of the Grain Valley 7th graders, 158 students. visited.  That is 15 students more than the entire high school 61 years ago.
 
Can you just imagine the fleet of 25 or 30 buses it would require to take the entire high school to the park? Oh, wait, most high school students today would probably refuse to ride a bus. Well, maybe they could be bribed if it was free admission to a Chiefs game or a Taylor Swift concert!
 
I usually find it amusing when folks my age talk about the “good old days.” What was so “good” about no central air or heat, outdoor “johns” and no televisions. On the other hand, a field trip to Swope Park every year was pretty cool!
 
By the way, if you haven’t been to the Historical Society to see VOICES AND VOTES, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, plan to visit before December 13, 2025.  We are open from 10:00am - 4:00pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays and from 1:00pm - 4:00pm on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

Grain Valley High School from 1960 to 1975. Photo credit Grain Valley Historical Society
​