Letter: The more things change, the more they change

Opinion

April 30, 2010

Anonymous Times-Leader McLeansboro Times-Leader Fri Apr 30, 2010, 10:35 AM CDT

To the editor:

I was talking to my sister-in-law in Carmi recently. She told me my niece had suffered a disappointment.

My niece works part-time and had planned to use her tax refund to finance her senior trip. Unfortunately, she made a mistake when she claimed her deductions and the IRS ... well, suffice it to say my niece didn’t get a tax refund.

Feeling sorry for her, I thought I would call and offer a token job and pay her enough to cover her trip; $50 to $75 was what I had in mind.

You can imagine my shock when my sister-in-law informed me that my niece’s trip was an excursion to Chicago, where the seniors will be dining at a restaurant, then take in a live stage show. The cost for the trip would be $300 plus spending money.

I made my offer, and my sister-in-law seemed pleased at the prospect of having part of the trip money and said she would speak to my niece.

I hung up and started to think about my own senior trip. I am a proud 1978 McLeansboro High School graduate, and my class was treated to a day at Six Flags. The school got a reduced rate to enter the park, then we were turned loose with the reminder that the bus would leave at a specific time and we should be on it or find our own way home to McLeansboro.

As I remember, I had $20 to eat on and buy souvenirs.

My mother recalls her senior trip. She is a proud 1938 McLeansboro Township High School graduate, and her class got a ride to Mt. Vernon City Park in the back of Pa Sander’s pickup truck. He was the local mortician at that time.

The lake in the park had boat rides, and for a nickel you could buy a hot dog for a picnic lunch.

I suppose the idea of the senior trip hasn’t changed, whether you go to Mt. Vernon, St. Louis or Chicago. The privileged senior is out of school, doing something fun, while the poor, pitiful underclassmen are sitting at their desks being appropriately miserable and wishing they were seniors.

Still, I wonder if the seniors of 2028 will be jumping on planes and flying off to New York or maybe L.A. Glad I won’t be helping to pick up the tab for those trips!

Ella Lane

McLeansboro

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