Random Musings

We were talking in the car the other, as we are wont to do. Topics varied, as they do.

And Nic says, “I went there on a school holiday once. We went for a walk.” (Referring to a place sign we’d just passed.)

I couldn’t and can’t get that out of my head. I later asked for clarification: “they took you out of school to take you on a walk?”

Nic: “well, we went for several walks.”

I’m so confused.

You see, I’m from LA. If we went on a field trip it was to somewhere. I.e. a mission, or the Tar Pits, or Disneyland. We didn’t “walk”. Like, just drive to open land and…walk. Apparently, that’s supposed to be fun, and what kids don’t want to…walk.

Now, yes, I understand that this walking was through fields, and maybe there were even trees. And the kids could probably talk while walking, and that’s nice. And it’s good, to get kids exercising and out in the open.

Even after all my years here I’m still sometimes baffled by small, pop-up cultural differences. I can’t imagine taking a group of kids from LA and saying, let’s just go for a walk. They’d probably be better off for it. I would have liked it, I think. If it wasn’t desert or city streets. I understand the desire to go for a walk in the country now, but if you’d asked me to walk for no discernible purpose or end game when I was 15, I think you’d have known by my expression what I thought of that idea.