My First Picnic This Year

Is it too late to make a New Years Resolution?

On Sunday, after a week of disgusting gray cold arctic weather, we actually had a nice warm sunny day. The temperature managed to sneak into the fifties (Fahrenheit) for the first time this year. I had checked the weather forecast so I knew it was coming. I was prepared.

The night before I whipped up a batch of my secret recipe potato salad. Around noon on Sunday I cooked up a hot sandwich — a spicy chicken patty with melted Swiss cheese, thinly-sliced onion and some spinach leaves between toasted rye bread — and I wrapped it in aluminum foil to keep it warm. I then put some magic potato salad in a container and, along with a fork, I put it all into a bag then walked to the local city park that is three and a half blocks away.

And I had my first picnic of the year! In January!

This particular city park has plenty of grass and trees in addition to a sanded playground and a band shell, where in summers concerts are held. The snow was rapidly melting and large swaths of grass had appeared and were getting bigger. It was so nice to see the ground!

The name of the park, by the way, is, ‘City Park.’ The streets are all named with letters or numbers. The founding fathers of this town had zero imagination!

What I like about this park is that it has a plethora of park benches (unlike all the other parks). Most of the benches are facing the band shell and there is a large open grassy area between the benches and the stage of the band shell.

Since the band shell is at the south end of the park the many benches were facing south, the perfect direction to be facing while sitting on a park bench in winter. The sun, still in the southern sky, was beating down on me in a most pleasurable way as I sat on one of these benches.

The last time I made my secret recipe potato salad I had used a little too much of the secret ingredient and it didn’t turn out quite right. This time, though, I had used a little less and it turned out perfectly. The sandwich was pretty damn good, too. Of course, food ALWAYS tastes better out of doors.

So there I was absorbing as much life-giving sun as I could without stripping down while eating a delicious picnic lunch when something happened that I was not expecting. I was treated to live entertainment!

Given the delightful weather, the park was filled with quite a few people — mostly children. As I ate, three young girls went up onto the stage in the band shell. Each of them put one hand up to their mouth as though they were holding a microphone and they started singing and dancing. I’m guessing the girls were between the ages of 6 and 10.

They were definitely not The Supremes. They were horribly out of tune but they performed with an intense fervor. They seemed oblivious of me sitting on a park bench watching them.

When they finished the song they were singing I put down my sandwich and clapped.

This thoroughly freaked the girls out. Screaming those high-pitched girl screams, they quickly ran off the stage then off to a different part of the park.

I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare them off the stage. I was merely showing my appreciation of the free entertainment. When I am entertained or inspired I clap. Hey, that’s what I do on Medium.

I felt bad for freaking the girls out and chasing them off the stage. But if they’re going to be rock stars when they grow up they’re going to have to learn to perform in front of an audience, right?

Anyway, I finished my picnic lunch and sat on that park bench for over an hour absorbing as much sun as I could. When I got up to go home I felt quite invigorated and rejuvenated. Thank God for the sun! If I don’t plug into the sun on a regular basis my energy starts waning and I start feeling down in the dumps.

I figured my solar recharging would keep me going a few days. And that’s a good thing because the weather forecasters said that a polar vortex was on its way. It could be a while before we have another warm sunny day. When I got home I was brimming with energy and I got a lot done.

If my memory can be trusted, I didn’t have my first picnic last year until April. 2019 is already better than 2018 because I just had my first picnic of the year in January! That evening I made a New Years resolution to not go a single month this year without at least one sunny picnic. I hope it’s not too late to make New Years resolutions. I certainly plan on sticking to this one.

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. Archive Index of All My Stories

Related story: