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By
Diane Forrest
When I was younger I used to love to read the Nancy Drew
books. Not only were they full of
mystery and intrigue, but Carolyn Keene, the author, would write the most
marvelous descriptions of food I ever read.
She would describe a picnic basket that Nancy's housekeeper, Hannah
Gruen, would pack for her, including fried chicken, potato salad, chocolate
layer cake with thick icing, and a thermos of ice cold lemonade that would just
make my mouth water. I guess I always
thought that having a delicious picnic would help me solve a mystery or crime.
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As I got older, I used to dream of having a wonderfully
romantic picnic beside a stream, sitting on a red checkered blanket under an
old oak tree, with my guy laying his head on my lap as I read romantic poetry
to him until he drifted off to sleep.
Sadly, I never solved a crime, or had that romantic lunch by the stream,
but there are many other types of picnics you can experience.
A picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at
which a meal is eaten outdoors, ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape.
Picnics are often family-oriented but can also be an intimate occasion between
two people, or a large get-together, company picnics and church picnics. On
romantic and family picnics a picnic basket and a blanket are usually brought
along. Outdoor games or some other form of entertainment are common at large
picnics. Formerly, picnic meant a potluck, an entertainment at which each
person contributed some dish to a common table for all to share.
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Picnics are extremely popular all throughout the spring
summer and fall but during the month of July you see picnics everywhere and I
do mean everywhere! One of the reasons why picnics are so popular in July is
because a large number of families take their vacations in July and spend much
of their time outdoors enjoying the warm weather and having picnics out of a
basket or having outside picnics while grilling BBQ on the grill.
Every summer when I was growing up, our usual family
vacation consisted of traveling across the state of Mississippi to visit my
grandparents. My mother would pack a ice
chest with some sandwiches and cold drinks and along the way we would stop at a
roadside park and have our lunch. I
don’t know what it is that makes pulling out a sandwich and eating it on the
side of the road that makes it tastes so much better, but those were the best
bologna sandwiches ever.
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July is National Picnic Month, you still have plenty of
time to pack a sandwich in a bag and sit on a park bench, or plan a romantic
outing with a picnic basket filled with wine, fruit and cheese, or even a
family day out with some fishing poles, a grill and some hot dogs. It doesnt matter what you have, or where you
go, the important thing is the memories you make that will last a lifetime.
