In a season five Simpsons episode, Bart's class goes on a field trip to a box factory, where they've apparently been before.
The ironic thing is that the sole field trip I remember we were on in grade school was... wait for it... this is so cool... you're never gonna believe it... gee, I kill myself... a box factory!!!
Is this one of those true cliches, like you can't read doctors' handwriting? Box factories are a stable of school field trips?
All I remember is that they made, amongst other things, boxes to go in portapotties. And that we had to find our own way back to the school in a public bus. Odd.
17 comments:
I've certainly never been to a box factory. Field trips I remember include collecting sea-shells, forest walks and an army base... no boxes.
Glad to hear it.
Thinking longer, I do recall one more trip, to the wetlands to watch birds.
I have no idea what you are talking about. In the times of my first field trip at school we were making boxes ourselves.. and the first trip was to the CANDY FACTORY! And not a bad one: the chocolate from Novosibirsk made for export is known among experts of the art... ;-)
I've never been to a box factory either. What a weird idea for a field trip. We went to see a lot of nature shit which, God knows, you really had to go far to see.
I think our best field trip, apart from the week in Carcassonne (age 14) in France, and the week in Paris (age 12), or the weekend in the rural studies center, a converted village school (age 8), would have been the one to Llandudno and Conway, by way of ferry from Liverpool.
Our walking field trips involved castles, Roman ruins, Victorian architecture. The ones we were bussed to involved less recently used castles (Chester castle was in use still), farms, dairies, forests, Offa's Dyke, art galleries, museums, radio telescopes (Jodrell Bank). But never any factories.
As for factories I've seen since I grew up, candy factories (Hershey, Cadbury, Jelly Belly) and car factories (Vauxhall, Ellesmere Port).
I think the warships were things put together by fathers, rather than school. I remember going to see subs and aircraft carriers, frigates.
Strange, just realized any field trips that weren't within 3 shires were international.
You could write a children's story:
Eolake and the Box Factory.
Oh yes, that'll be a ripping tale, danger and high jinx.
You'd just need to find a way to make it interesting. Set it in a world where everyone is an animal and make a pirate the villain of the story. (Kids eat that shit up) The pirate can be the owner of the company who's illegally shipping nightmares into their parent's dreams in the boxes his factory produces, then their pleasant dreams get shipped back to him. (He needs the positive energy to keep himself fat and healthy) Also, most of the parents work at said box factory.
You can make yourself a small version of your spirit animal or something like that.
Yep, that would work.
True cliches indeed. I'm a very poor doctor (just ask R.A.F.), and it so happens that my handwriting is shamefully clear and easy to read! :-)
Dibutil,
Are you ripping off my veteran act? There are copyrights to pay on this, you know. Especially now that it's become worth something. ;-)
More seriously now, in my religious school, all we had for field trips were "spiritual gymnastics" in ancient convents. But I didn't mind having a school day off for it. (And no, it doesn't mean we jogged there before prayer.) That's what you get from growing up in a country at war, not many places available for visiting. And since I didn't have videogames at home either (I bought my first console at age 21), I made it up by reading a lot. So that I could bore people to death with my vast useless knowledge the day blogs would get invented.
Hey, why should I be the only one to suffer for my Dickensian childhood, right?
We did visit a factory in Med School, part of our Sociology course and "class research". The world-famous... Cortas® food canning factory! (Whaddayamean, "never heard of it"? Philistines!)
Oh, haven't I told you? "All sociology research is done by Doctors", our teacher teachily teached us touchy teachees. (Try saying it while eating Cortas® mashed potatoes.) Makes you wonder why they created such a specific profession as Sociologist. The very job of Pr. Mona Murad, or Mu-Mu as we nicknamed her. She always wore more make-up than an Egyptian star actress! (It's no wonder that all that weight made her face sag...)
"Set it in a world where everyone is an animal and make a pirate the villain of the story."
Sorry, too late. It's been done. It's called Baby Lilly and the Pirates, whose chief is the dreaded plush bunny BlackEars. My 4y/o nephew has the video clip on DVD. And there's robots, and toy soldiers, and rag dolls, and matriouchka russian dolls, and wooden puppets, and... well, basically, the pirates attack, everybody dances, Lilly's ship sinks but she wins by stuffing the rabbit's mouth with his own carrot sword, without so much as wetting her nappy. Oops! Forgot the spoiler alert. Sorry to everybody under 6...
And there are boxes in it too. Baby Lilly and her crew hide in empty barrels aboard the enemy ship to surprise them. Barrels are boxes for storing liquid.
In Eolate and the Box Factory I was thinking more in the lines of "Box Factory" being a metafora for society. The antagonist (school teacher) wants to hammer in the kids' minds the virtues of conformity by introducing them to a modern and sophisticated box factory.
The protagonist, Little Eolake, takes an anarchist stance and becomes indifferent. In retaliation the antagonist sets up a nasty scheme and lets the kids find their way back from the factory on their own. She trusts that will scare Eolake away from his individualistic mindset.
Also, she assumes the Box Factory kids will find their way back sooner, with Little Eolake having difficulties. A test of wills and a powerful psychogical drama ensues – both between the kids and within the mind of Eolake ...
... read the rest from the book.
Kinda reminds me of the play "Our day out" by Willy Russle. Except their field trip went to the country side, and one of them tops himself because he can't stand the idea of returning to the inner cities.
A very enjoyable read.
My favourite field trip film is Picnic at Hanging Rock (NTSC, PAL). It continues to be unsurpassed in this genre. Pure. Magical. Recommended.
But I also have high hopes for the film production of Eolake and the Box Factory.
I watched _ Picnic at Hanging Rock_ last year. I didn't really get it.
The Hanging Rock is an actual place in Australia, and the film has quite a cult following.
There are many fan sites about the film that debate its meaning. Also, the [Warning: spoilers!] Wikipedia article about the book has some interesting points to make. There is also a separate article about the film.
If you haven't seen the film and think that at some point you might, don't read either of the above mentioned articles now. It will spoil it for you.
There is even a book of hypothetical solutions (by Yvonne Rosseau) called The Murders at Hanging Rock.
I have my own theory of the story. Here is a clue: In the Led Zeppelin film, The Song Remains The Same, in the fantasy section in the middle, Jimmy Page climbs a mountain. At the top he sees an old man with a torch. Before his eyes the old man starts to morph into a younger self. It turns out to be Jimmy himself. The morphing continues all the way to infancy. End of scene.
TTL promoted...
"... read the rest from the book."
Not exactly the story of Willy Wonka™ then, it seems. :-)
Undoubtedly, an out-of-the-boring-ordinary name like Eolake would be much better for the advertising and sales than "John" or "Charlie". Uncommon, at least by Hollywood standards, therefore catchy.
..."wants to hammer in the kids' minds the virtues of conformity by introducing them to a modern and sophisticated box factory."
Reminds me of the insane villain's dream in Who framed Roger Rabbit: concrete everywhere, lifeless inhuman uniformity everywhere, "my God, it's gonna be beautiful!".
"and one of them tops himself because he can't stand the idea of returning to the inner cities.
A very enjoyable read."
Yeah, a regular Disney merry tale for the ickle ones who find Winnie the Pooh too violent... ;-)
The Captain ho-hummed...
"I watched _ Picnic at Hanging Rock_ last year. I didn't really get it."
Yeah, well, you didn't reallt get Eolake and the Box Factory either, did you? :-P
I have to admit that. Sometimes I just another philistine.
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