PICNICKING ONE WAY & ANOTHER

 

My family liked to picnic in the snow.  This was in 1961 at Heavenly Valley ski resort, Lake Tahoe.  Sandwiches and hot chocolate!  L-R: youngest sis, brother, me, middle sis, and Mom.  Dad was the photographer.

Another year (1964) we were headed home from a weekend family trip to the snow looking for a nice spot off the road to have a picnic lunch when it started hailing like crazy.  So we had our picnic lunch in the car!

1967 – yet another picnic in the snow.  My Mom’s choice of seat was the garbage can!  Next to her is her mother, my Grandma Louise.  Next is me, and then my youngest sister & her then boyfriend.

No longer in the snow, but not all that warm as it wasn’t quite summer yet at New Brighton Beach (CA).  But we picnicked gamely before searching the beach for interesting driftwood.

Mom & Dad

So now we were at the beach in the summer of 1962 on Stinson Beach.  It was often windy there and sometimes not all that warm.  On this day we were sitting behind the sand dunes but our shoes were off and our legs were bare, so it must not have been too bad.  It looks like the picnic bag was still zipped up tight so we must not have eaten yet.

 When I was younger in the early ‘50s we went on these picnics to Stinson Beach and other neat places in the area via ferry boat as the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge wasn’t completed until 1956.  Of course the bridge made it easier & speedier to reach our destination, but it lacked the charm and fun of going by ferry.  We kids used to love the ferry boat ride.  Dad would park the car below and we’d all get out and go up-top to stand outside and look around the bay (San Francisco Bay).  As we sat waiting in line (at either end) we’d count all the cars coming off the incoming ferry and try to guess if we’d make the current one, or have to wait for the next one.  Meanwhile, Dad would be reading the Sunday Paper, and Mom would be looking around contentedly.  Happy memories! J  

There were times when we’d gone to Stinson Beach and found ourselves hunkered down behind the dunes trying to get away from stiff cold winds and wondering if we should even try to have a picnic.  I remember one time in particular when we decided it wasn’t worth trying to keep the sand from blowing on our sandwiches and in our drinks while huddled down beneath the dunes all bundled up in our jackets!  So we came home.  Dad built a fire in our fireplace and spread a blanket on the floor in front of it and we sat down to a warm cheery late lunch we called “lunner” and all of us remember it as a great fun time!  When life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade – or hot chocolate! J

Speaking of beaches and cold and wind, I don’t know what I was thinking taking my eldest daughter and myself up to Tenaya Lake in Yosemite – elevation 8150 ft. – in October for a picnic lunch?!!  We persevered, but it was cold and windy!  We met someone interesting, though.

When we first pulled into the parking lot, this raven was sitting on an upturned BBQ grate.  They are BIG birds!  That’s the front of the car just in front of it to give you an idea of its size.  It never moved – just continued watching us as we got out of the car and, talking quietly to it, I raised my camera to take this picture.  It was a beautiful iridescent black and finally did shift a little when I began coming closer.  I got within a foot & a half of it, continuing to talk quietly.   I am the pigeon whisperer, after all. J   But it finally decided I was a little too close for comfort – quietly talking or not - and flew to another perch farther away.

It must have been a fairly warm day here on the beach below San Francisco’s famous “Cliff House” in or around 1895 with everyone sitting around in ‘shirt sleeves’.  My Grandma B - Harriet ‘Hattie’ Bell Smedley (eventually Bradley) (left) – was in her mid teens.  Her mother is sitting up top in the fancy hat (she designed hats for a milliners shop.)  Hattie and a friend were the only ones without hats so they used their sandwich boxes on their heads for hats in the picture.

Away from the beach, now, this was a summer picnic among the redwoods in beautiful Muir Woods.

A happy bunch having lunch in camp at Bliss State Park, Lake Tahoe in 1956-57.  I was taking the picture.  From L-R: my two younger sisters, my Grandma Louise, my Mom, my brother, and my Dad.

Me and my brother having a picnic lunch in our backyard in 1945-46

The time my youngest sister and I hiked up to Tilden Park and took picnic bag lunches with us.  We had sandwiches and chips, but didn’t have anything to drink with us so we walked over to the merry-go-round where we knew there was a snack bar except besides drinks & snacks, the snack bar was now offering 'foot-long' hot dogs with all kinds of finxin’s and they looked so good!  A taste-bud dilemma!  What to do?  But we didn’t want to carry our sandwiches home, nor did we favor the idea of throwing them away, so we reluctantly ate our sandwiches and just bought drinks.

Some years later, however, when I was visiting my Mom and we were talking about going somewhere for lunch, I remembered those great hot dogs by the merry-go-round in Tilden Park, wondering if they were still there after so many intervening years?  Knowing Mom liked hot dogs, I asked her if she’d like to try there?  She did.  So we went up there and sure enough, the hot dog/snack bar was still there with those same great hot dogs.  So we bought a couple – Mom just likes mustard on hers, but I like the works: mayo, mustard, catsup, sweet pickle relish and diced red onion!  And we took them over to a bench by the merry-go-round and sat there eating our yummy hot dogs while watching the kids (and some adults) having fun riding the beautifully carved and painted animals going round & round.  Was the best lunch ever!

When I was working in Oakland I used to take a bag lunch to Kaiser Center’s rooftop garden and sit by this beautiful pond to eat.

This was a Mother’s Day picnic at Pine Mountain Lake where we were living at the time.  I think we had three Mother’s Day picnics here over the years.  After eating some of us would hop on the lake’s water taxi and ride around the lake for fun.

Ahoy the beach - see ya' later.

But these ‘picnickers’ take the cake!  I called them the “Creek Fire, Otter Court Social Club”.  They were gathered at the top of Otter Court in late afternoon/early evening in Pine Mountain Lake where there was a perfect view of a wild fire burning across the way.  It was still a ways away from the lake, but was gradually inching its way over the forested hills toward it.  Fortunately, it was stopped before it got there, but these folks were prepared to watch it as long as they wished with chairs, drinks, sandwiches, chips, pizza, and whatever else they thought to bring with them. J

:->

La Nightingail