As mentioned yesterday, I passed up on chaperoning Sydney's field trip because AJ's sounded way more fun. I'm a good mom about things like that.
In my defense, AJ's class was touring WDIO-TV and the Great Lakes Aquarium. If they'd squeezed in a stop at Out There Advertising they would have hit all my former employers. How could I not accompany him on what - for me - was a total trip down memory lane?
We started in the studio. That's certainly changed since I was there! A totally different layout and much better set. Each of the kids had a chance to sit at the anchor desk.
Then it was on to the weather wall where they could practice pointing in front of the green screen.
It's not as easy as it looks!
And then we headed to the news room. What memories! They've added new, better and many more TV monitors since I was there, but overall it's stayed the same. That desk on the left of the photo below used to be mine. And that chair in the lower right, next to AJ, that's where I was sitting when Jeff proposed to me.
We saw how much the editing bays and master control has changed since everything's gone digital, and then we headed to master control where my longtime friend Sue taught kids about all the different production positions that it takes to put a show on the air.
AJ thought it was cool, but in the end decided he wasn't too interested in career in TV news. Smart boy!
The Aquarium was fun, too, though a bit more challenging. I had five boys to keep an eye on. And pretty much all of them suffered from A.D.D. most of the time. Or maybe their just boys.
Before they were let loose, one of the Aquarium staffers told the kids they were supposed to always stay within an arms length of their grown up person. Yeah, right. That pretty much happened never.
But they had a good time, got to touch a Madagascar hissing beetle and a ball python, and made it safely back on the bus without getting hurt or lost. Success!
And a yet another reminder of why my career choices have never involved elementary education.
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