Picnic’s

PICNIC

Labour Day, 1955

(A.K.A. Labor Day. I guess we dropped the “u.”

That is very American of us to drop those extra letters we don’t need.) 🙂

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PICNIC

Starring Kim Novak and William Holden

(And a cast of many more.)

(I love the Chinese lanterns)

A handsome drifter arrives at a small Kansas community just in time for a nice Labo(u)r Day picnic and apparently causes quite a stir with a few of the local’s.

My mother’s friend Judy Ballard Dempsey would always tell me that this is the movie she watches every Labor Day.

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Even though the movie was filmed in 1955 and I wasn’t born until 1961, it still harkens back to me of those picnic’s past when I was a young girl growing up in the south. The linens, the clothing, women wearing pretty dresses, men wearing white suits, the ladies working on their needlepoint in between tending to everyone where the food and drink are concerned. The lake, the boats, the bank, the levy, the picnic baskets, the picnic thermos, the picnic foods, the cakes, and my grandmother scolding me because I had kicked my shoes off and I was running around barefoot in my pretty dress and according to her ‘ladies don’t act that way’.

I was also still required to ‘ sit up straight’ even when eating at a picnic table.

I miss those days. Not just the picnic’s but the beauty of the south. The ladies sitting in the shade underneath those beautiful trees fanning themselves on that hot Georgia day. Hearing them hollar at the boys for getting their britches dirty with that red Georgia clay. They knew that stain wouldn’t come out. The boys either had their britches stained with grass or that beautiful red Georgia clay. As for me, you could always find me wading in the water skipping stones.

To me a picnic isn’t just about the food. It’s about finding the right picnic spot. Using the prettiest linen’s. Usually hand embroidered by my Great-Grandmother Honnie. Playing in the creek. It never mattered to me how cold the water was. I could stick my barefeet into freezing cold water and I was happy just to be splashing around and finding pretty rocks.

A picnic to me is a trip back in time visiting those that have long gone, but never forgotten. As long as I am alive they will be too. So, would you like to go on a picnic?

Load up the car. I’ll be along in just a minute……

Julie

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OUR LABOR DAY PICNIC

Let’s Start First With Dessert

Julie’s Red Velvet Stuffed Cherry Cake with Vanilla Frosting and Cherries, Flowers

Isn’t it pretty? Well, I obviously think so.

I am no cake maker or decorator. I use a ready made Betty Crocker cake mix. And up until my 40’s I honestly thought that was the definition of cooking from scratch…..

All of my cake pans are different sizes. I just use what I have and to dress it up I’ll add this or that. I always start out trying to make it perfect and then it just sort of unfolds into something a 7 year old would do. So, I decide to just please that 7 year old inside of me and I make it a bit tacky.