When I grew up in Sackville, N.B., one of the places they took us to for field trips was the Enterprise Foundry, where they built stoves and stuff. My sister Moira's class was on such a trip and when they encouraged the kids to ask questions she asked, "How much money do you make?"
Moira's embarrassed that she ever asked such a stupid question, but it was better than the question I asked when my class visited! At home we had a Westinghouse stove, so I asked, "Do you make Westinghouse stoves?" The guy indignantly answered that they only made Enterprise stoves, adding, "Some of the people here have never seen a Westinghouse stove!" Another kid asked, "What's the most serious type of accident?" I was really jealous of him.
On one occasion my class took a bus to Springhill, N.S., to visit the Miner's Museum there. They had a small safe pit that you could walk into and dig a little coal, to imagine what mining is like. Our guide was one of the survivors of the 1950s disasters. To show what it was like he turned out the lights for a moment. He asked if this was OK with us, and the most vocal kids said yes. But I wasn't ready for it and freaked out. On the way back one kid made fun of me for this.
I could never work in a mine.
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