PARKS AND PICNICS

Monday, April 24, 2006

For some strange reason I find myself thinking about picnics today. I don’t know why, because I’m not going on a picnic and don’t even want to.

But I really liked to go on picnics when I was a kid. It seems to me picnics have been crowded out by other things. And some parks have become dangerous. Well, the parks are not dangerous, but the people who go there are. Families have been pushed out by gangs and dirty old men. There are still some nice parks around with nice people in them, but not as many as when I was a kid.

It was exciting to plan a picnic and then get friends and relatives together in the park. Sometime it would be fried chicken, potato salad, etc. and other days it would be sandwiches, chips and soda pop. In my youth we had back yards but not patios. Now, almost everybody has a patio where friends gather for food and fellowship.

I don’t really miss going to the park. It’s just a pleasant memory of days gone by. Things need to change. Change is good. The thing I don’t want to lose is the desire to get together with relatives and friends. And I have to admit there are days, many of them, when I had rather think about getting up from my “easy” chair than actually doing it.

Come to think of it, having a little picnic right in front of the T.V. is not all that bad!