In 1974, a gasoline shortage forced schools to seek alternate transportation for school activities. In Portland, Oregon, the kids rode their bikes to school functions.

I was a third grader in San Diego, California in 1974. I rode a huge bus to get to school where the bus driver terrified her passengers with apocryphal stories of people who die by swallowing their tongue, but I don’t remember any field trips.

The caption that comes with these photos from the US National Archives reads:

School children were forced to use their bicycles on field trips during the fuel crisis in the winter of 1974. There was not enough gasoline for school buses to be used for extra-curricular activities, even during dark and rainy weather.

Photos by David Falconer.