Did you go on a high school spring break vacation?

[Phentex]

I don't remember having any break called Spring Break when I was in high school and it was well after the dinosaurs roamed. We did have a senior class trip to Washington, D.C. sponsored by the school. The history teachers and some parents chaperoned. But the year I was a senior, the main history teacher couldn't go so someone else organized a trip to Orlando, FL and then a cruise to the Bahamas. We held all kinds of fundraisers and I was able to go. My mother didn't have much to do with my life at that point so I know there was no discussion about whether or not I could go. If I paid my way, I did what I wanted.

My own children didn't do much for Spring Break. I think I took them to a beach in FL once and I think they went with friends whose parents had places there another time. I helped pay some of the expenses but I don't recall thinking I needed to be with them when they were seniors.

My neighbor is upset about her daughter's friends (and parents) going to a trip to Jamaica. It sounds like it was sprung on her but she doesn't trust her daughter going by herself. Then she found out some of the parents got rooms of their own. She booked a room WITH her daughter. She can do what she wants but I know the last place I would have wanted my mother was on Spring Break with me!

Did you do anything? How have you handled this with your children if you've gone through this?

[tymorial]

1. Nope.

Just February and April vacation. I didn't do spring break in college either. Didn't have the money.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. What you said. NT

[flor-de-jasmim]

2. No, nothing was planned at my high school.

[CentralMass]

4. No. I always worked during it.

[Phentex]

5. Was it an Easter break or an actual Spring Break?

I guess I can try and google but DU has a broad range of people so I thought I'd try to solve this mystery here.

[SoCalNative]

6. We had Easter Vacation

One week. This was public school in Southern California 1960s-1980s.

[rsdsharp]

9. Our Easter "Vacation"

consisted of getting out at 2:30 PM on Good Friday. I graduated in 1972.

[hueymahl]

7. Yes, we went to the Redneck Riviera my senior year

Also known as the Florida panhandle.

[Phentex]

10. I'm familiar...

pretty popular to this day.

[hueymahl]

13. I'll have a senior next year

I imagine he will want to go somewhere with his friends. Up to now, we have enticed him with family trips that are pretty dang fun, if I say so myself. All we can really do next year is hope we have taught him to make good decisions!

[Phentex]

18. It's called trust...

and many will be heading off to college in the fall. And god only knows what all they'll get into then!

[lkinwi]

8. No, my parents would have been like your neighbor.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

11. No such thing in my day!

[Phentex]

20. Here's info swiped off the internet...

As far back as history has been recorded, people have celebrated the arrival of Spring—including the ancient Greeks and Romans, who were all about self-indulgence. Of course, those rowdy crowds centered their jamboree on their respect for Dionysus or Bacchus, the Greek and Roman gods of wine. But what we now know as Spring Break really began because of two events: When Fort Lauderdale built Florida's first Olympic-size pool in 1928, and when MGM released Where The Boys Are in 1960.

Fort Lauderdale's pool, considered mammoth at the time, brought the nation's top competitive swimmers to the city during their break from classes, and by the late '30s, more than 1500 student-athletes were flocking to the city's College Coaches' Swim Forum. The first of these forums was hosted in 1938, and droves of college swimmers made Fort Lauderdale their exclusive Spring Break home well into the '60s. By that time, non-student athletes began to take part in what these swimmers had created; Time first mentioned the phenomenon in their 1959 article titled "Beer & the Beach." The bacchanal had gone mainstream.

A year later, MGM released Where The Boys Are, a coming-of-age film that followed four college women during their spring vacation. And just like everything in a postmodern society, reality reflects art. Spring Break became a very real thing for any collegiate male or female who wanted to escape to sand and sun. In 1986, MTV launched its first Spring Break special in Daytona Beach, Florida, and found an annual tradition in showing what really happens on this mid-semester get-away.

By the end of the '80s, the city that first made Spring Break famous—as evidenced by the 370,000 students who invaded in 1985—said it had had enough of the raunchy and unruly guests it had invited all those years ago. The city adopted stricter public drinking laws, and then-mayor Robert Dressler went on Good Morning America to say that Spring Breakers weren't welcome anymore. Of course, by that time, there were plenty of other cities hosting their own annual parties—ensuring that Spring Break is a tradition that won't die out anytime soon.

- From Mental Floss

[zeusdogmom]

12. Spring break was Easter break. (1950-1960 era)

Went to church every night. 3 times on Sunday - sunrise and the 2 normal Sunday services. I was in the choir.

Some years there was no break - too many snow days and we had to make up those missed days.

No one in our community went on a spring break. Wasn't part of the culture. And you know what - we survived just fine.

Senior class trip was a 2 hour school bus ride to Minneapolis - toured the Ford plant and Betty Crocker (General Mills) Evening meal at the Lavender Inn in Fairbault. Exciting day. 😜

[Wellstone ruled]

30. Oh crap.

Thought our so called trip a hoot.

Two hour Bus ride to Minneapolis,Ice follies, and Dinner at some Restaurant on Hennepin Ave. Then two hour Bus ride home.

Same routine for Easter week,Choir Church every service,usher.


Thrilling!!!!!!

[zeusdogmom]

40. Ice Follies!!

You were lucky!

[Wellstone ruled]

41. Yup,

Tickets were like 2 bucks and I think the White Linen Dinner was 6 or 7 dollars. Which was a ton in 1959. Hey for a Kid from a *hit hole,that was a biggee. I mean,had to wear your Sunday best. First time ever having Lobster. This was on the Wednesday of Easter Week,like you had to Usher Thursday Evening Service as well as Choir. Same for Friday and Saturday night as well as twice on Sunday.

[zeusdogmom]

45. I am a female thus was not allowed to be an usher

Ushers seemed to have a good time though. They didn't have to sit with their parents, could hang around in the back of the church, slip down stairs during the sermon or the 12 verse never ending Lenten hymns.

Of course the choir was upstairs in the balcony so there was some freedom. Unless Ella the organist ratted you out to your parents. My current choir sits in front of the congregation. No sleeping, no slipping out, no usage of smart phone, try to look attentive, laugh at Pastor's jokes, etc. And yet somehow, I am compelled to show up for rehearsal and Sunday. Must be something good there...

The lobster must have made an impression - I don't remember what I ate. Of course if you are from MN the normal fish selections are walleye, sun fish, crappies, and ugh - bullheads. So lobster was quite a change of pace.

[TlalocW]

14. Not normally

But my junior year, the various students taking some class in Spanish (if they raised enough money for themselves) were part of an interchange with a class in Puebla, Mexico, where our school's Spanish teacher had taught when she was younger. They came up and stayed with our families for two weeks, and we went and spent two weeks in Mexico, part of it over Spring Break.

Other than that, it just wasn't that common for my parents to do something like that - they were older than most of my classmates (mom had me at 40, and dad passed when I was a sophomore) so any kind of weekend excursion that didn't involve dad getting to fish or our going to Kansas City to watch the Royals was rare. And I only remember one actual vacation, and that was to Colorado when I was in 4th or 5th grade.

TlalocW

[gladium et scutum]

15. Never had a "Spring Break"

Easter vacation was the term. In high School, did as always, helped feed and milk 40 Holstein cows. In college, had to get home to help dad with the cows and anything else he needed doing. After all he was paying the tuition, books, fees and basic living expenses.

[Lochloosa]

16. I skipped to much. It would have screwed up my schedule.

[Phentex]

19. LOL!

Sounds like my sister. I think she missed the maximum number of days you could and still pass a grade.

[Lochloosa]

27. There was a maximum?

I used to piss off my algebra II teacher. Come in on Monday and find out what she was teaching that week, then show up on Friday and ace the test.

[geardaddy]

17. Just with my parents.

Not one of those crazy get drunk act like an ass ones with friends.

[Sedona]

21. I grew up in Ft Lauderdale in the 70's& 80's

Spring Break came to me every year.

[Phentex]

24. Fun!

I can't even imagine!

[csziggy]

22. Nope - got my wisdom teeth out instead. Loads of fun

Especially since my childhood dentist did not believe in using much painkiller while he was doing procedures so it was always excruciating. And he did not believe in pain management at all following procedures so most of the week of Spring Break I was in serious pain and not able to eat much.

That was my senior year. Junior year we got dragged to Washington DC to go to a memorial for my grandmother at the DAR Convention Center. You know, the one they wouldn't let Marian Anderson sing at? Grandmother was very involved in DAR so we all had to go i her honor.

[Phentex]

25. That's cruel...

why couldn't they punish you over the summer?

[csziggy]

31. They didn't want to delay because the wisdom teeth were crowding the others

I was OK with it - a senior spring break trip was not really an option for me. What pissed me off was I had planned some long distance rides on my horse.

I spent most of my spare time in high school on horseback. I'd go to the barn before sunrise, hit the trail, take a lunch break and rest during the hottest part of the day, and then get home around sunset. 30 miles or so was a good day of riding, most of it alone since few others wanted to spend that much time in the middle of nowhere.

[Shrek]

23. I usually went skiing

But not for the whole week.

I had a part-time job and could afford 3 or 4 days on the slopes.

[Shrike47]

26. No. I date back to Easter vacation and we went nowhere.

I remember going to Where the Boys Are* and thinking ‘these are kids?’

*WTBA was a movie released in 1960. It was not realistic.

[Siwsan]

28. The only thing we did was to go on a 'Senior Trip'

And, while I was in school, it was pretty much inevitable that trip would be to Cedar Point - an amusement park in Sandusky, OH.

[OriginalGeek]

29. I went all 4 years of HS to a christian school

I wasn't even allowed to have friends outside church and school. I wasn't even supposed to be listening to rock music lol.

We did go on a Senior trip to San Antonio and it was fun but we weren't allowed to go swimming at the hotel pools or anything.
We did go to a revolving restaurant in SA and that was great and one night several of us gathered in one of the teachers rooms and we were watching Dirty Harry on HBO and a topless girl jumped up out of the pool and I thought the teacher was gonna crack a rib jumping over to throw a blanket over the TV. I think we laughed about that until long after graduation.

Not surprisingly, they never ran to cover up Harry shooting anyone.

[LisaM]

32. Nope. Our class had a senionr trip, but we went to the location (Cedar Pointe) on buses

and we just went for the day.

I don't have kids, and I don't know how I'd handle it. I think generally (if it was financially feasible) I'd let them do whatever their friends did. That said, I'm floored by the kind of vacations both kids and families take these days. The farthest we ever went was by car, from Michigan to Washington, D.C., and when we were actually there, we stayed with relatives.

Now even my friends who claim that they are frugal (and poor) think nothing of taking their kids to Disneyland for a week. Worse, many of them thinking nothing of taking their kids out of school for a family vacation, even if said vacation doesn't coincide with the school's break.

[sinkingfeeling]

33. No, we had an Easter holiday.

[stevil]

34. I lived in West Coast Spring break capitol for a couple of years.

Palm Springs Ca.. It was wild until the year we had the riots. After that the city cleaned up. Anywhere nowadays would be safer than we were back then.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

35. We got Good Friday off.

No spring break, that. Also, no senior class trip. I graduated high school in 1965.

When my kids were in school they got a two week spring break (private secular school) which was wonderful. Some years we did a family vacation, some years stayed home, some years I took them on a driving trip somewhere. My older son's senior year we did a family vacation to Australia. That was the best.

[doc03]

36. Back in my day we didn't have any spring

break and we liked it.

[Phentex]

43. Ha!

I wonder what my kids are gonna say one day.

[d_r]

37. during my spring breaks as a kid

I was entertained by a color television set and rode my bike to my friend's house.

[Skittles]

38. LOLOL

hell no ..... never

[sakabatou]

39. No. I went on a MIDDLE SCHOOL break instead

[Generic Brad]

42. I worked every spring break

I would return home and work full time at the same job I held through high school. It was their busy season and they were kind enough to allow me to help them out every single spring break.

My college room mates would all take a junket to Florida or the Caribbean. But that highlighted the difference between them and me. Their parents paid their tuition. I funded mine entirely on my own.

[zanana1]

44. I didn't even go on a college spring break vacation. nt

[femmocrat]

46. Not in HS or college.

I never even knew about it until I saw the movie, "Where The Boys Are."

I wouldn't have had the money anyhow.

[crazycatlady]

47. I did family vacations back in the day

I never particularly enjoyed them though. My mom's idea of vacation is go to the hottest climate possible and lay on the beach all day. I have never been a summer person (I've always hated hot weather). THe family vacation I liked best growing up was Lake Placid in January.

[NewJeffCT]

48. We had a Senior Skip Day (unofficial)

where kids would go to the beach (45 minutes away) for the day. Never heard of high schoolers going on a spring break vacation/trip until that girl went missing in Aruba years back

[TexasBushwhacker]

49. We only had an Easter holiday when I was in HS in the early 70s

It was Good Friday and the following Monday.

I did go to the Texas coast for my first spring break when I was in college in 1977. I also made a road trip with a friend to New Orleans to see the King Tut exhibit that year.