National Picnic Day

It’s National Picnic Day! People have been eating their meals outside in the beauty of nature for centuries. In fact, our modern-day idea of a picnic evolved from Medieval hunting feasts and Victorian garden parties. These were usually quite sophisticated affairs, which involved multiple courses and elaborate preparations.

During the early 19^th century a group of wealthy London citizens formed “The Picnic Society” to promote picnics as social gatherings. These picnics were potlucks, and each participant also had to provide a share of the entertainment. The society members drank from crystal goblets and listened to a live string quartet while eating their meal! Today, picnics are usually casual meals enjoyed on a comfortable picnic blanket.
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I love picnics and have some fond memories of them.  My earliest memory of a picnic is with Mom.  She made some finger sandwiches and we went into the backyard where she spead a blanket and we ate the sandwiches.  After we'd eaten, then we layed down on the blanket and looked into the sky and told what the clouds made us think of.  I think that was when we were living in Virginia.  My sisters would most likely have been with us, but for some reason I don't remember them on this occasion.

I remember our "family" picnics were usually held alongside the highway as we traveled.  It was more for necessity rather than fun as the restaurants were few and in between at times and with a family of six, meals could get very expensive.  Probably my most notable roadside breakfasts were when Mom had purchased a gazillion boxes of Captain Crunch cereal at the commissary for about .10 or .15 cents a box. So, we ate LOTS of Cap'n Crunch.  In the beginning it really was quite fun and exciting.  Cold cereal was not normally kept in our home (with four children it wouldn't last long).  We usually had hot cereal such as oatmeal, grits, farina, cream of wheat, etc.  By the time I'd eaten the Cap'n Crunch several times, it was no longer fun.  In fact, I've never bought a box of it at all in my entire life.


These are some other picnics I have pictures of...

Picnic at Andersonville National Historic Site which was a POW camp during the Civil War with Travis and Sarah.

Touring the grounds of Andersonville National Historic Site with Sarah and Travis.  I was pregnant with Corey at the time.  I think this was around October of 1978.

Les with Sarah and Travis.

Checking out one of the cannons at Andersonville National Historic Site with Uncle Les.



Another memorable picnic...After driving across country and back for two weeks, Corey and I had lots and lots of picnics.  This was the last one we had near the end of our trip.  We had left Arkansas that morning and around lunch time we kept looking for a roadside park or some place to stop and eat, but never found a place.  Finally in Mississippi we discovered a spot alongside the road that had been cleared away.  We just stopped there and that's where Corey took a picture of me sitting on our very large cooler eating my lunch.