My mom and I were talking about field trips on Saturday and this reminded me of a story. Years ago I mentioned here about how my sister went to a birthday party held at a McDonald's. It wasn't an officially sanctioned event; the birthday family basically just took over part of the restaurant. They also didn't communicate properly (by which I mean not at all) with any of the parents, so the birthday kid and his family ate while 29 kids just sat and watched.
I mention it because I had a similar experience, only it was a Girl Scout function. I couldn't tell you which badge this counted towards, but basically the manager took us on a tour of the place so we'd learn all about the joys of being a McDonald's fry cook at the age of 8 or 9. So after watching hot, delicious French fries be made the troop master bought herself and her kid each a meal, while the rest of us sat around and watched because she didn't tell the parents beforehand "hey, give your kids some money because we're going to eat there afterwards." A few of us dared to briefly complain, only for bitchy troop master to growl at us to shut up if we wanted to still receive credit, it's not her fault that our parents aren't mind readers.
And in case you're wondering, no, I never got a meal. Since my mom didn't know she already had a regular dinner at home going and was not going to throw out my portion just so I could have a Happy Meal and stop whining. Though for what it's worth she was a lot more sympathetic when I recounted the story on Saturday.