Fourth Graders Go Back in Time
by Curtis F., Kaitlyn N. and Jack L.
November 16, 2009
When we got in the bus for our field trip on Monday, November 2nd, a vortex appeared. the bus driver didn't know what to do so he drive through it. As soon as we drive through the vortex, our clothes changed. We were no longer wearing jeans and t-shirts. The girls were wearing long dresses and many of them had bonnets on, and the boys were wearing flannel shirts, jeans and boots. We were definitely not in 2009. We were dressed like we lived in the 1880s.
Our lunch boxes had also changed to buckets filled with food boys and girls ate over 100 years ago. There were pheasant legs, cheese, apples, salami, cookies, pumpkin seeds and jerky. Water was all we had to drink. We were shocked! We had no "Lunchables" or pudding cups. The homemade food we ate was not packaged in the usual plastic bags or wrap, it was wrapped in towels.
Finally, the bus came to a stop at an old town named Flowerfield. We heard a school bell and lined up ready to attend our "new" school. a teacher came out and told us her name was Mill Herbel. her name was "Miss" Herbel because female teachers couldn't marry, male teachers could marry. She invited us into the one-room school house and showed us our seating chart. The boys sat on one side of the room while the girls were on the other side of the room.
When we all sat down we began the school day with geography. We learned where our ancestors came from . Then we went to a small log cabin to practice our penmanship. We wrote with feather quills dipped in ink wells.
After we finished penmanship, we went back to the one-room school house to study reading. We never knew if she was going to swat us with a ruler if we did something wrong, so we were really good. We read several stories out of the McGuffy Reader 3rd edition.
Then we went to a real log cabin. there was a cooking stove with an ash tray and two irons. There was a washer with a ringer. It was scary because she had us use the ringer. Our hair and our fingers could have gotten caught in it. We walked into the dining room. There was a small table with a fine table cloth. There were four chairs and a vase full of flowers. The parlor had a hand run quilting machine, a heating stove, an a record player. The bedroom had a very small bed with boots, long underwear, and a bonnet on it. There was a disgusting chamber bot under the bed.
After that, we went to the outhouse. Miss Herbel said, "I hope nobody's in here." We all got excited as we waited for her to open the outhouse door. "Ollie! We didn't know you were in there! Everybody look! He has polka dot underwear," said Curtis. Next we walked over to the general store. We couldn't believe the cheap prices. there was penny candy, pocket knives, coffee beans, pajamas, potatoes, corn, apples, baby shoes and bonnets. We said "bye" to Walter, the store clerk, on the way out.
We walked on to the sod house where Walter and Ollie live. The house had a stove, a couch, and a table. The ceiling and the walls were made of dirt. Miss Herbel had to check if there were any rodents in the house. There were ruts on the outside where rodents tried to get in. They had birds in cages so they could hear them. We went to the museum and we saw an iron lung, a picture made of hair, and an ice saw.
We headed back to the schoolhouse where we had a spelling bee. Jack won. Sadly, it was time to get back on the bus and head to 2009. We said goodbye to Miss Herbel. When we got home, we played our modern video games. We were relieved that we were back in 2009. When we looked at our clothes, they looked like they did when we first got on the bus.
