My Senior High School Trip to New Orleans

Before I write any more stories about living in the city, my first car, my first job or my first love, my sweet daughter, Tiffany, wanted me to write about my high school Senior Trip to New Orleans in 1959.  So at this point, I'll regress just a little to my senior year. 

I think about high school trips today and the high school trips in the 50's in comparison and find absolutely no similarities to compare.  If any of my former classmates are reading this, and I think there might be one or two, they will no doubt attest to this story I am about to relate. 

There were probably 40 to 45 of us senior class that spring in 1959 who rode that long overnight train ride to New Orleans for our "Senior Trip". Early that morning we boarded the school bus to take us to Sallisaw to the train depot.  We had worked hard all year selling popcorn and goodies to raise enough money for the trip.  All expenses were paid from what we were able to pool together and we received contributions from many good merchants of Muldrow.  Our food, cost of the train tickets, the tour and the zoo we visited were all paid for in advance, and we had our own spending money.  I baby sat for extra money and probably earned around $25.

 Our sponsors, Ms. Rubye and Mr. Peters, presented us with very strict dress codes.  Boys were required to wear suits and ties, dress shoes, and of all things--hats!  Not ball caps but men's dress hats, probably right off their fathers' coat racks.  Girls wore dresses or skirts, medium size high heels or flats and hats as well.  Now picture that--a bunch of teenage boys and girls in suits and their Sunday best dresses riding on a train all night to New Orleans!  Tiffany still laughs when I relate this story to her but she recommended that I include it in my blogs.  I don't think we were allowed to wear slacks or jeans on the train either because arrangements were not made for us to store our things someplace, so you wore what you had on or you'd be carrying around a suitcase all day--I don't think backpacks had been invented yet.  Can you just picture the boys trying to fix their ties, straighten the hats (I don't think all of the boys wore hats, but a few did), and try to look decent after an overnight train ride?  When Tiffany's senior class flew to Hawaii, they dressed appropriately in shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops!  Times have changed.

My Grandmother made me the cutest brown and white checked shirt dress with a matching belt, and I wore white heels, hose and a pretty white hat I bought down at Ms. Emma's Variety Store.  It was a very cute outfit, but I looked more like I was going on a job interview instead of a high school outing.  The funny thing about it all was that we didn't question why--we just did what we were told, and we had fun, dresses and all.  Some of the girls wore full skirts with those big starched petticoats underneath, and as I recall, it was a pretty hot, muggy day in Louisiana when we arrived the next morning.

When we detrained we were transported by a tour bus to a fancy hotel and served a nice hot breakfast in an elegant dining room.  I loved that, especially those fancy eggs and bacon that you didn't dare eat with your fingers!  How in the world do you cut a crispy piece of bacon with a knife and fork anyway?  But "Miss Manners" was watching.  After breakfast our bus picked us up for a tour of New Orleans.  We stopped on Bourbon Street and wandered around while being closely watched, especially the boys.  Didn't want them wandering off  and getting into trouble as boys always manage to do.  After souvenir shopping, we boarded the bus again and headed to museums, churches and a tour of the French Quarter.  We had a cute little tour guide--she also wore a hat and carried a purse.  We visited an above-ground graveyard which really fascinated me at the time.  The tour guide explained to us that they didn't bury people underground in that part of New Orleans because of the water.  I liked that, as I really do not want my old body buried under ground (remember that kids).  Next stop was the zoo where we ate a late lunch and spent the rest of the day just having fun with our classmates, taking pictures and posing for the monkeys--just silly teenage fun!  I saved those pictures for a long time, but I was cleaning house recently and getting ready to move, I may have thrown them out or packed them away somewhere.  I hope I run across them some day so I can include them in this story.

Around dusk we were taken back to the train station, hot, tired and probably a little smelly, but most of us, except those cuddled with boyfriends (strictly forbidden if caught) slept all the way back to train depot in Sallisaw where our school bus was waiting to take us back to school, and to think we did all of this without a cell phone to call ahead and text back and forth, no electronic games, no iPods or portable DVD players to watch movies on, but we were certainly entertained with at least 500 rounds of "Found a Peanut" or "Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall"!  Boys can be so annoying. 

I am glad to have shared this story, because after 50 years you forget the funniest things!  Yes, Mr. Dylan, "Times Have Changed"!

Our Guide Lady
in New Orleans

Published by Mom/Nana at 11:17 p.m., June 14, 2011,  because I want to share the funny parts of my growing up with you!
...I love you