Memorable Picnics

     My earliest memories of picnics goes back to my early childhood when our family would join forces with friends of my parents, for a picnic on the banks of the Cumberland River, in eastern Kentucky.  Our favorite place to go was where large, room sized rocks made a  perfect table for laying out the fried chicken, and everything that went with it.  I do not remember swimming in the river.  As I recall the rocks were up too high from the river, and we had the surrounding woods to run around in and explore.  My mother's best friend was named Estelle Smith, and she was usually there with her husband and one son.

     The pastor of our church played a big part in the other memories of early childhood picnics.  His name was Dr. Mark Andrews, and he must have enjoyed picnics too.  Each year when our whole church held our annual picnic at the Boy Scout Camp, Camp Blanton, he supplied the drinks for everyone.  That in itself was quite a project.  He brought a new, galvanized tub filled with lemonade and ice.  In those days to make lemonade you had to buy fresh lemons and get the juice out the old fashioned way.  As a child I did  not appreciate all the work that went into doing that, but now I realize it was a monumental task.

     My sister Frances, who was twelve years older than me, made picnics so much fun.  She always made pimento cheese sandwiches.  That involved a lot of work, as she grated the cheese by hand.  When we reached our destination, which was quite often the banks of Norris Lake in Tennessee, she set up a portable cooking affair and proceeded to make peanut butter fudge.  She could whip up the fudge while all the kids, her three, and her younger siblings who tagged along, jumped in the lake to swim.  It just did not get any better than that.

     During my college years, one picnic I remember came about from an invitation by a young man who later became my husband.  The picnic was held at Boonesboro Beach, in Kentucky.  He belonged to the World Affairs Club and what I remember was all of us sitting in a circle and someone passing around a bottle, everyone took a sip except you know who!  My mother preached against alcoholic drinks and it had its effect on me.  I avoided it like the plague.  Unfortunately, my date did not avoid it and he did not avoid it big time!!  Fortunately, he was not driving as we had hitched a ride with someone else.  He fell asleep in the car on the way home.  If he had not  apologized the next day, that would have been the end of our friendship.

     When our family was young we would take off for a picnic at the drop of a hat.  I could whip up a  picnic at a moments notice.   Even in winter we were not deterred.  Somewhere in my box of old photographs is one of us in the dead of winter in coats and hats sitting around a picnic table on the banks of the Potomac River, outside Washington, D.C.  Once I wrote a letter home to my family which gave them all a good laugh - though it was not funny to me.  I told them what I had taken on a picnic and mentioned two chicken legs.  They, who cooked up whole chickens for a picnic, just laughed  about that.  For us it was not so much the food as the event.

     Picnics occurred almost weekly when my husband was free from work.  It was fun to take the children out and fun for all of us to be together.  On one picnic I took along a chocolate meringue pie.  After we finished our meal we put the uneaten part of the pie in our basket, and all went for a walk, leaving our lunch behind.  As we walked back  to where we had left our pie, we were all  looking forward to finishing it, and sat down in great anticipation.  However, someone had wandered by and found it  first.  It was gone, no doubt about it.  Someone suggested that maybe it was Yogi Bear who had done this dastardly deed.  We were pretty miffed about it, but what can you do?  We know that the thieves  had a good dessert that day!

     Sometimes when things go wrong you can only blame yourself.  One fourth of July we joined in with some family members for a sailing picnic.  The guests brought along a huge bowl of fruit salad.  Oh, if only it had been Tupperware with a lid, but it was not and did not.  Someone put it in the bottom of our sailboat.  It was not all smooth sailing that day as we learned later.   That bowl of fruit salad had tipped over and the wonderful fruit spilled all over the floor of the boat.  All the regrets in the world could not bring it back!

     So, as you plan your picnics this summer (and I hope you do plan some )  think about tight fitting lids and securing your food left unattended.  Think about inviting someone along who might not have a family to go picnicking with.  It will be like Wrigley's gum, it will double your pleasure. They will enjoy it and you will earn a feather in your cap for being such a nice fellow!!