2 posts tagged “childhood”
When you were younger, were there any game shows that you religiously watched and wanted to be a contestant on?
When I was a kid, I always watched The Price Is Right. The best part was the Showcase Showdown at the end, because they'd frequently make up these little narratives to string together the prizes, and the Barker's Beauties girls would act them out. The travel vacations were the best prizes. The bedroom sets were the worst.
But I never wanted to be on the show, because what if I overbid on an item and looked like a fool? What if I couldn't spin the big wheel hard enough to make it go all the way around? The only game I would want to play for a prize was the Plinko one, where you drop a disk on a board and it randomly travels down through a series of pegs and ends up on a dollar amount. Because that one was totally based on luck, not skill.
Other game shows I enjoyed: Name That Tune, and Press Your Luck. (Big money, no whammies!!!)
What was your most memorable or favorite school field trip?
My most memorable and favorite school field trip was my senior year cinematography class's "photo safari" to Kauai. Okay, before you start judging by "cinematography class" and "Kauai", you should know that I attended a public high school on the island of Oahu, so it was a 20-minute flight to the neighboring island and not some privileged private school's Hawaiian vacation trip.
The purpose of the trip was to take photos. This was back before digital cameras, so we were shooting slide film and after the trip the best photos would be culled for a group multimedia production. So about 20 of us piled in to minivans being driven by parent chaperones. My group was made up of precisely the people I wanted: two of my best friends and two girls I liked. So there was a great chumliness coupled with adolescent sexual tension, generally diverted into wrestling. One of my friends brought along a mix tape that naturally became the soundtrack to our trip. I still have a copy of the original tape, and can't hear Blondie's The Tide Is High without hearkening back.
Though the trip only lasted three days and two nights, I filled half a marble notebook with the experiences. To read back through it is about the right mix of sentimental good feelings and cringing embarrassment over the concerns of a 17-year-old.
There was laughing, there were fights, scandals and triumphs. All in all very Real World, but before the Real World existed. Afterward, I was sorry that we had waited until the end of the school year to take the trip, as we were a much more cohesive group upon returning.
