Pine Cove Trip; Installment #2

I thought that our day would get an early start on our trip to Tyler, but the buses were a little late and we didn't leave until after 8:30 AM. Fortunately we had the charter buses from transportation and not the "yellow dog" buses. You know the ones; the regular school buses that you see daily on the routes. Can you imagine being on one of those things for nearly 3 hours???

The trip was great on our bus. (We took two buses.) The riders on the other bus had a less than stellar experience. Apparently enough breakfast was not brought or it was misplaced, or something cosmic happened to it. By the time we had traveled about 35 miles their bus stopped at a convenience store to get some muffins or honey buns for the kids on their bus. As if that was not enough, the DVD player on the bus didn't work.

NO CARTOONS!!

That stinks!!

The first picture (above)was taken on our bus as we were traveling to Pine Cove.

After arriving at Pine Cove we unloaded and took our things to our cabins. Afterwards, we all gathered at the dining hall and waited for lunch. Lunch was good. We had sandwiches, chips, and the other obligatory fixins'. After lunch, the kids went to the gym for their orientation and the teachers/chaperons stayed in the dining hall for our orientation.

My assigned group's 1st Instructional Period was Team Building. Here they learned how to work with others in a group to solve a problem or complete a task. It was really interesting to see the natural leaders in the group come forward.The first picture above shows the group receiving their instructions. The next picture shows the group working together to find out how fast the can pass the black ball through 12 pairs of hands in the least amount of time.

Believe it or not they got it down to approximately 1 second.

A tiny frog. A really tiny frog! Pretty self explanatory isn't it?

Ahhh! The Zip Lines, our 2nd Instructional Period of the 1st day. What better way for a 5th grader to overcome fears and build up confidence than to hook up to a wire and take a step off into space? The kids were excited to get here and take the plunge; but first we had the mandatory safety lessons and other instructions.

Once the instructions were over the first set of boys trekked up the stairs and hooked up. Then, hesitated and paused and finally took that leap and sailed down the line none the worse for wear.

While the boys were working on top of the tower I took some of the girls to the pier to pick up their equipment. While there I saw a step and explained to them that if they did not look down before they jumped then they wouldn't be as afraid. Also, when it was time to jump they should simply step off just like they were stepping off the pier where were standing. Some of the girls came to me later and said they did this and that it was easier for them.

Way to go Barry!

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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Pine Cove Trip; Installment #1

So a few months ago my principal stopped me and asked me if I would do a favor for her.

I said, "Sure, I think. What is it?"

She went on to explain that the 5th grade classes were going on a field trip to Pine Cove Camp for Science.

I thought that sounded cool.

The principal said it was overnight...as in three days and two nights overnight.

OK.

She assured me I didn't have to go if I didn't want to go; BUT, if I didn't go they may not be able to find another male chaperon and that would mean the trip is off and the 5th grades would lose out on a excellent learning opportunity.

OK, thanks for the taking the pressure off.

Any way, I told her that I would go and I actually began to look forward to the trip.

THEN I was told the trip was off; not enough male chaperons.

Rats!!!! I had really begun to look forward to going.

THEN two weeks ago I was told that they had found a male chaperon for the trip and it was on again; and it was a little over a week away.

Goody! Time to arrange for a substitute and prepare things for her and my class to do. Once again, on the field trip we would go to the Pine Cove Institute of Wilderness Studies in Tyler, TX. The trip was planned to give our students hands-on experiences with nature and the environment and was geared to their grade level Science TAKS test (Which is tomorrow by the way).

The big day finally came on Wednesday, April 22. I had made all my arrangements, packed enough clothes for a week, and psyched myself up for the events of the next three days. I was ready for this. I was assigned 7 boys in my cabin and was assigned to a group of 12 students (6 boys and 6 girls)for our instructional periods. Fortunately, one of the 5th grade homeroom teachers was also assigned to my group. (In reality, I suppose that I was actually assigned to her group and not the other way around.) The Teacher, Ms. Steele, is a great teacher to work with and does a great job with her kids. You can tell by the way the kids respond to her. As it turns out, earlier this year I was assigned to Ms. Steele's class for after school tutoring. Because I was with her kids most of this school year I grew to be fairly close to them and this trip made that bond even stronger.

A few pictures of the trip begin tomorrow.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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Picture Monday, April 27, 2009; Notgeld #19

The Notgeld for this week is quite interesting. The firsy set is a single note from Tostedt. This note is intersting for the reason that it does not have a specific value. It does have the number "50" designated on it. However, I cannot find anything indicating whether it is Pfennigs or Marks. The reverse is also interesting. It depicts a train on th bottom portion and in the upper corners are signs which say "Bremen" and "Hamburg". Tostedt is between these towns and must have had a railway which connected the two. Tostedt is near Hamburg.



The next set is also quite different from others that I have shown. The set below are 75, 50, and 25 Pfennig denominations. One aspect of these notes is that I cannot determine which municipal authority issued them. On the top bar of the obverse of each note are the words "Ersatz wert zeichen", I think. This leads me to think that these were replacement notes of some sort. I looked a little closer and noticed that under the sailing vessel on the obverse of each note the wording below the vessel have been printed over with the words "So knapp das brot seefahrt ist not". I know that it is about bread being in tight supply or something close to that. Could it be that these notes were the really a commentary on the current times and the advent of hyperinflation??

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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Picture Monday, April 20, 2009; Notgeld #18

The notes for this week are from Bitterfeld. This is a collection of six notes, all 75 Pfennig. Each one has the same obverse and each reverse is different. As you can tell from the first picture, these notes are commemorating the electrical and related industries.

The two notes below represent the coal mining in the area and the bulk power plant. Obviously the plant used the abundant coal for the production of electricity.

In picture below (Bild 3) we see the production of current, most likely within the bulk power plant above. Next you see the note representing High Voltage Carriers or the power lines. The train lines probably represent the coal trains bringing the coal to the plant to make the electricity for the power lines to take to the good German people of the area.

Looks like industry used the power also. Picture 5 shows us Electro-Chemistry. Looks like fun. The final picture is of a locomotive and an electric train, most probably used for taking goods to market.

It is interesting to note the two lower corners of the notes. The lower left hand corner looks like fire, perhaps from coal. The lower right hand corner is lightning bolts representing electricity.

Also, below each picture on the notes themselves, there is an explanation of each picture which would be good to read if I could read German.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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Picture Monday, April 13, 2009; Notgeld #17

I decided to add the "Notgeld"logo above to the weekly posts that deal with my Notgeld. This logo comes from the front of the display book that contains my collection. The book was apparently made in Karlsruhe, Germany in the early 1920's.

After making my post last week I found two more notes from Wittgensdorf. I have scanned them and posted them above. It turns out that the 25 Pfennig note above is the same one that I linked to last week and commented that it was different from my notes from Wittgensdorf. I stand corrected. It seems that I do have it now.

The three notes above are from Hamburg. They are all "Gutschein" or vouchers. No I did not scan the 50 Pfennig and 1 Mark notes crooked! They were printed crooked. I guess there was not a lot of quality control in the various print shops "back in the day."

© 2009 Barry T Horst


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Picture Monday, April 6, 2009; Notgeld #16

I have found an interesting group of notes today. The first note is from Wyk auf Fohr. It is the first note that I am aware of that indicates that it is a "certificate" valued at 1 Mark. I think that it says it is good at "Altdeutschen Keller", the Old German Cellar. I don't know if this was a local business or something else though.


The next four notes all indicate that they are "Gutschein" or vouchers. The first two are from Nordhausen; a 50 Pfennig and a 25 Pfennig examples.





The other two examples I have are also vouchers from Gemeinde Wittgensdorf. Again I have a 50 Pfennig and 25 Pfennig example. Click here to see a different 25 Pfennig note from the Community of Wittgensdorf.





Whenever I look through my collection I always feel like a kid that can't read looking at all the books in a library wondering what is in all of the books. I know there are untold stories on each individual note and yet many times I can't unlock them. I struggle with the font used on many of them, the printing quality, and of course the language. Through time I have picked up some of the language. Most of the time I use online translators as well as online resources that for history research. But I am always stymied when I can't read the font. Sometimes I use "trial and error" or just plain guessing and I get lucky and can translate and start to get the story. Sometimes not.

© 2009 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.