July 2013 near Wharton, Texas My last post about picnicking near the caboose, reminded me of our picnic at the teepee a year ago. Our picnic of coffee and donuts hardly qualifies for a picnic, but we were determined to enjoy the last minutes of our stay at the Teepee Motel on the old TX State Highway 60. This crazy roadside treat was built in the 1940's when road travel was quite the thing. We remember driving by these teepee motel structures 12 years ago and they were abandoned and overgrown with weeds and vines. Luckily The Woods family won the lottery and brought them back to life!
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Remembering a Picnic This photo is from a picnic last Saturday, but the memory is from long ago. On Saturday as I ate my lunch, staring at the low tree branches, I was reminded of a picnic I once enjoyed in a mulberry tree. I was about 12 and living in Florida in this picnic memory. I remember hiking with a couple of my siblings and friends to a nearby pasture with a large muddy pond and a wonderful mulberry tree. We took our lunches, packed in paper bags and climbed our favorite mulberry tree, each looking for the perfect branch, heavy with plump berries. I don't remember if it was difficult straddling the limbs while feasting and chatting. I don't remember if there was Spanish moss hanging from the tree, or if we were swatting at mosquitoes. And I don't remember who started it, but one of us (on a higher branch) plucked a mulberry and shot it at someone seated below. For the next few minutes berries were flying and splatting in all directions. Squeals and giggles and lots of purple stain. Now that's what I remember!
Morning? I couldn't resist sharing this foggy, picnic photo from when Don and I lived in California years ago. We used to grumble about the "early-morning-low-clouds" that tested our patience. There's nothing like this ocean view from grassy, Heisler Park on a sunny day... so it can be frustrating. But we didn't complain too much. We lived a short walk from this spot, so we were able to enjoy picnics with many kinds of weather. I see a thermos that makes me think morning coffee...but I see a bottle in the cooler that makes me think wine. Maybe we had breakfast mimosas? I don't remember!
Community Picnic in Sunrise Beach, TX Today it's too stormy for a Memorial Day picnic, but 3 years ago Don and I enjoyed an old fashioned celebration right out of the books. It was warm and breezy in the small community of Sunrise Beach, an hour west of Austin. A couple hundred people gathered in McNair Park to eat barbecue, as a part of a fundraiser for the volunteer fire department. The crowds watched two Veterans raise the flag and a soloist sang the Star Spangled Banner from the shady pavilion. Besides the barbecue feast, there was special entertainment. The "Beachers Lawn Chair Brigade" marched with folding chairs and the fire engine created mountains of soapsuds for the children!
May 2014 in Laguna Beach, CA Laguna Beach is a pretty special place for a picnic, but I'm focusing on the mosaic table and chairs! I don't remember this cute Gaudi-style set up from when Don and I lived in Laguna over 30 years ago. But when visiting Laguna a few weeks ago, I fell in love with the spot. On our last day in town, Don and I picked up soft tacos from La Sirena Grill and hurried to Main Beach in hopes of catching the table for a lunch picnic. Despite the fact a school was having a field trip and some local men were hogging most of the benches...our table was free. Too bad we didn't have checkers or chessmen. Our table had a fine built in checkerboard on top!
Tallahassee, Florida in 1970? I remember being at this picnic when I was about 12. When the photo was taken I was probably off escaping with a book or finding a dog to pat. I never felt comfortable mingling at my dad's cast parties, but I did like watching the crowds. This party was celebrating the closing of The Threepenny Opera, starring Lotte Lenya, who was in the original German production in the '20's. Here she is decades later after I believe her final performance in the play. But I wasn't a bit impressed with her. I was secretly in love with Norman Chase who played Mackheath. I loved his black hair and intense black eyes when he sang Mack the Knife. I loved him even better off the stage when his impish grin reminded me of Charlie Chaplain. I was terribly intrigued with how he wore a scarf around his neck at all times. I love this black and white photo with 7 people to study. But I like studying the table, too. Mmmm, gotta love that giant can of Charles Chips!
Del Mar, CA While drving from San Diego to Laguna Beach a few days ago, Don and I stopped and found a perfect sandy cliff above the beach in Del Mar. You can't see the beach below. And you can't see the train tracks below, carrying Amtrak passengers. But you can see Don pointing! We thought we were seeing dolphins but it turned out to be a pod of whales!
West Texas Roadside Stop Don and I have passed (and wondered about) this roadside picnic spot a few times in past years. We made sure to plan a lunch stop here on the first day of our 4-week TX to CA road trip. The parking lot was surprisingly crowded for a Monday in April, but not one of the 6 tables was taken. We were mighty pleased to enjoy our ham sandwiches sitting on these sturdy and oh, so wide benches as we watched the dog walkers and stretching truckers nearby!
Springfield, MO in Early Sixities I have many memories of Grandma and Grandpa Meyer's backyard. Most of the memories are summertime memories, when our family would travel from Iowa or Florida to see grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins...all relatives who got to feast on Grandpa's special barbecue chicken more than once or twice a year! In the photo you can see the smoke and I can almost smell the tangy barbecue chicken. I can almost hear the sizzling as Grandpa slathered on his special buttery sauce seasoned with pepper and Worcestershire. There was always a fresh fruit salad on the side and plenty of Grandpa's homemade bread for dipping. The fact that we kids were stopping from our play (And we cousins played hard, even in dresses) to observe Grandpa at work, says a lot!
Celebrating my 57th and the Year 1957! We had the most fabulous weather for my birthday weekend, so we had to do a picnic. Since I was celebrating my BYB (birth year birthday) I wanted to pay tribute to my birth year with a fifties style celebration! Heidi gave me a new retro basket (front) We used my old coolers that came from my husbands family. Scott and Chali played Frisbee with me (from the fifties) Heidi brought hula hoops. Don made chicken salad for the feast. And we enjoyed a little fifties music as well. Perfect picnic!!
With the Wonderful Beard Family at Ochlockonee River I am on the left, with my mouth wide open... squealing over some kind of birthday treats that the Beard Family surprised me with on our camping trip. I have such wonderful memories of Jenny (beside me) and her sisters Janet and Joni and their welcoming and patient parents, Mr. and Mrs. B! I remember so many happy and giddy times with my second family!
Picnic with Mom It's exactly one month until Mother's Day. I've already met my goal of sharing about 60 picnics to honor my Picnic-Loving-Mom! But here is yet another photo of Mom picnicking. It must be 2010. My sister Jennifer was on one of her many visits to help out with Mom after she moved to Texas with Alzheimer's. I loved those visits when Jenni and I would spend a week doing all Mom's favorite things. We squeezed in a lot of favorites just at the picnic table. We brought books and word games and favorite foods like egg salad sandwiches. We even got Mom on a swing for a bit. This photo makes me miss Mom...and my sister.
Sleepy Breakfast I look sleepy, because it was early when Don and I stopped for a breakfast of granola bars, yogurt and coffee. It may not have been the yummiest picnic feast, but the view was hard to beat. We didn't stop for too long, because we were on our way to the Bouquillas Crossing, which opened just a year ago in Big Bend. We sat at our table wondering what kind of adventures we would have when we crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico. Would we ride burros? Would we eat enchiladas? Would we find it easy to speak with the folks in the village? It was a picnic with lots of anticipation!
Enchanted Rock in Texas! In the spring of 2014, I gathered with my dear Book Club friends at this table. I knew I was getting close to my goal of listing 60 picnic memories! And it was still a over a month from Mother's Day, when I hoped to reach the goal. But this had nothing to do with goal setting. This group was doing what we have done for 15 years. We have discussed books... and laughed, joked, sung, shared stories, argued, yawned, squealed and even shed a tear or two, around many a food covered table. I will always remember this day fondly. The first time our book club hiked and picnicked together!
Pleasanton, California Don and I spent all of 30 minutes in Pleasanton. We were excited to find this park as we drove through town on our way towards San Francisco. We had picked up some hot pasties earlier and we were eager to wolf them down before they were cold. The flaky meat pies we sank our teeth into came from a small pastie shop in an area where Cornish miners settled long ago. The miners used to carry these hearty pies in their lunch pails when they headed into the mines. It was fun to know the mining history behind our meal, but mostly we were enjoying a little family nostalgia. The only other pasties either of us had ever eaten were made by Don's mom!
Tulsa in Spring of 1993 This is a hard photo to decipher at a glance. Besides recognizing my own two kids and our sweet friends Nathalie and Jack, it's hard to tell where we are and what's going on. I do recall the circus-like tent that provided shelter from a rainstorm during a symphony performance at the Tulsa zoo. I don't actually remember a picnic, but I see an apple in Scott's hand and I don't think Milissa and I (the moms) ever took our kids anywhere without food. I remember the coziness of our quilt and the rain on the tent and I remember the Mennonite family sitting nearby.
Webster Groves, Missouri in 1979 There is no writing on the back of this photo, but I can determine the date by Don's lack of facial hair. This must have been spring or summer of 1979, before we were married. Don had a beard on our first date (December 1978) and he had a beard when we married in October of '79. I liked the beard and never complained. But one day a few months before our wedding, he pulled out an electric razor and went to work. "You should at least see what I look like." He insisted. "I'd never marry a woman who's face I'd never seen!"
As for this picnic? I don't remember it, but I'm sure it was just a beautiful day and we didn't want to be inside. I recognize that we were in Don's backyard and I must have borrowed Mom's picnic basket. This could have been our first picnic...but probably not. Summer of 1967 In 1967, my family spent the summer in Kalamazoo. Here is a photo taken that summer, picnicking at a park with family friends, the Fricks. I also see someone very familiar standing in the center, wearing shorts. His name was Bill Leach and the 4 kids in my family adored him. He was an actor who worked with my dad over the years, but he was also a very entertaining magician, guitar player, singer and piggyback ride giver. When I see this photo I am reminded of how often our family gathered with others at outdoor tables like this. I imagine at some point the marshmallows were pulled out... and I'm sure Bill's guitar came out as well!
Tilles Park in St. Louis, Missouri (October 1991) The birthday girl is grinning in the left corner of the photo. Heidi was celebrating her 5th birthday on our first visit back to St. Louis after moving to Oklahoma. She and her good little buddies were eating hotdogs that her daddy had grilled and drinking lemonade from "carousel cups" with lids like circus tents. Her dear grandma and grandpa as well as great-grandma were attending. Even her 83 year old babysitter, Nana and teenage sitter Anne had come to celebrate. Then surprise! A truck arrived pulling a trailer....pony rides! Everything seemed absolutely perfect on this warm fall day...until Grandpa Z tripped when chasing a Nerf football ...and broke his arm.
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Mom's Picnic List
In honor of my mother on the first Mother's Day since she has passed, I dedicate a new list... Mom's Picnic List!
Mom loved picnics and she raised her kids to appreciate the simple pleasures of food, family and friends in the great out of doors. My Plan I will spend a year reflecting on as many past picnics as I can remember. But, I'll also appreciate the here and now by creating new picnic experiences. My goal is to share at least 60 picnic memories, since that's how many years Mom was a mom! Let the picnics begin! Archives
May 2023
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