Looking back on it, I must’ve temporarily taken leave of my senses, in volunteering to be one of the chaperones for my daughter’s first grade field trip to the zoo. At the time, it sounded like it would be fun.
The chaperones were assigned to five children apiece that we were to be responsible for. I got my daughter, Heather, Alina, Brandon and Garrett. After getting everything together (amidst arguments from the boys as to who had the biggest backpack to hold all the lunches and them all running in different directions because they were so excited), we finally herded them all into the bus for the ride to the zoo.
Once there, we got our groups together, were given the assignment pages, and told, “have fun!” and what time to meet back at the bus later. The assignment was for the kids to pick out an animal they wanted to talk about and write down observations on the pages. So it begins.
We wandered around the zoo, looking at all the animals. The kids stayed together, all but Brandon. I think I must’ve called his name at least a thousand times during the course of the day: “Brandon, stay with us.” “Brandon, come back with the group, please.” “Brandon, get down from the fence, please.” “Brandon….Brandon….Brandon….” I had that name ringing through my head the rest of the night!
After looking at all the animals, the kids decided to write about the penguins, so we took time out for that, then went to the giraffe house. This did not go over well with Heather. We started in, and admittedly, it was pretty stinky in there, but everyone forged ahead aside from Heather. If she got anywhere close enough to smell the giraffes, she’d begin to gag! Being afraid she’d throw up, I ended up staying outside with her, while the others went in and looked then came screaming out complaining but laughing about how smelly it was in there. Apparently, stinky places are funny at that age.
Time for lunch. We found a space under some trees, and began unloading the backpack full of lunches and passing them out. When we got to the bottom, no lunch for Brandon.
“Did you leave it on your desk at school?”
“No, I put it in the backpack.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Wait, I bet I left it by the penguins!”
And with that, he took off running back to the penguin exhibit, without any of us! I told the rest of them to stay where they were, while I went after him, found him, and told him not to ever run off from the group like that again! And of course, no lunch was there, either. Brandon suggested we call his mom, and she’d bring it down there. I nixed that idea, as it was a good 40-minute drive from our neighborhood to the zoo. So my idea was that everyone give Brandon part of their lunches so that he wouldn’t go hungry, and that seemed to work.
Alina then asks, “Can you take the cheese off my sandwich? I can’t do it, and I hate cheese.”
“Why did your mom put it on there if you hate it?” I asked.
“I don’t know; I told her I didn’t want it on when she was making it, and she said to just have someone take it off for me.”
Chaperone to the rescue again! Guess we’re supposed to fix everything that needs fixing, too.
Garrett then announces, “Look what I’ve got to drink! Mountain Dew!”
I nearly choked! I was not looking forward to his reaction once he’d polished that off! And sure enough, it was scary! A completely mellow, well-behaved child turned into a wired for sound, hyper Tasmanian Devil for about half an hour after finishing that drink. So I was then calling his name as well as Brandon’s for the rest of the afternoon.
We finished up walking around, and by then it was time to go to the bus. I was exhausted, sunburned and happy in knowing that I’d never have to do that again! Once back at the school, we herded them back to the classroom for what was left of the school day. They all went to their desks, tired but happy.
Then, from across the room, I hear Brandon call out, “Look! My lunch was here all along!”
Sure enough, there it was, sitting on his desk, right where he’d left it.
For the rest of my life, the zoo will remind me of that day. Mostly, I think, it’ll remind me of Brandon
