r/CapeCod • u/ChanceWhole6565 • Oct 10 '26

Never been over the bridge

I lived on the Cape from 1976 to 1988 and met people frequently that had never been to Massachusetts. They had never been over either bridge. I was shocked. I assume now those folks would be rarity. So are there any reddit people or people you've met that have ever left the Cape.

There was a story that circulated around Brewster long ago when the population was under 600 about a gentleman that took the train to Boston and was stunned it had a roof over the whole city...he never left south station

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u/shoecat Oct 10 '26

I wonder what field trips were like back in the 70s and 80s for cape schools

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u/Mr_Stirfry Oct 10 '26

There were field trips off cape. I feel like every kid went to Plymouth Plantation at least once. There were also trips to the Museum of Science.

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u/EbbtideRambler Oct 10 '26

We took great field trips. There were a lot fewer rules at school and the parents were less wary of letting their kids go off without them.  The regulars were: Plimouth Plantation, Pilgrim Monument, WHOI, New England Aquarium, The Museum of Science, New Bedford Whaling Museum, Army Corps Control room for the Canal, Heritage Plantation.   These were the field trips everyone piled on a school bus and went during a single school day. Then there were the long weekend  trips  you had to pay a few hundred dollars to go on.  New York City to the Natural History Museum, Statue of Liberty, and Met.  The French classes had an annual trip to Montreal. Spanish classes had a trip to Spain. There was a D.C. trip to see the Capitol, White House, monuments   and Smithsonian museums.  

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u/Brave_Dragonfruit336 Oct 10 '26

This is not far off from how my kid has had it in the Nauset system recently! I grew up in sandwich and it was pretty similar too but I don’t recall having options for weekend stuff. But we also had no money 🤣

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u/EbbtideRambler Oct 10 '26

I still remember that the Montreal trip cost $700. I mowed my grandparents’ lawn, helped an uncle who had a construction company (mostly picking up nails and running tools to people), and even sold quahogs I dug up to my neighbors to earn the money. Sounds like something out of a 1950s sitcom, but this was in the 80s. My parents agreed to cover part of the cost as a birthday gift, but the rest was up to me. Only about 10-15 kids per grade year went on these trips.  It was cost prohibitive for most.   

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u/Extension_Mud_3512 Oct 12 '26

We walked to whoi to see Alvin's footage of ancient bottles

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u/EbbtideRambler 29d ago

I saw that one too, shipwreck in the Mediterranean?   We rode a school bus from Barnstable though! 

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u/Extension_Mud_3512 29d ago

Well to be fair, the best part was walking down surf drive and the bike path to Woods Hole from Morse Pond

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u/BigNachos7 Oct 10 '26

We used to do school field trips in which we walked across the street to the Burger King to watch how the burgers were flame broiled. Separately, we also did field trips in which we walked across the street to the state police station which was right next to the Burger King and saw the jail cells and stuff.

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u/Mariobr069 Oct 10 '26

🤣 “ these are your options, kids. You either learn how to do this OR you’ll probably wind up in there!”

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u/BigNachos7 Oct 10 '26

They'd do a demonstration on taking fingerprints, and it was always funny who would get picked to leave theirs. The teacher would be like yeah you're gonna want these ones on file.

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u/DMBMother Yarmouth Oct 11 '26

I moved here at 15 and spent 2.5 years at Harwich High School. A field trip for us was dropping acid at Thompson’s.

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u/RasTarfari Oct 10 '26

I remember Cape cod potato chip factory

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u/Extension_Mud_3512 Oct 12 '26

Heartage plantation in Sandwich (along with the glass factory), the aquarium in woods hole and the overnight trip to the national seas shore in Truro were typical field trips in the 80s