27 Mid-Century Snapshots of People Eating Picnics

 

“A goodly bunch having lunch”
– Yogi Bear spots a ‘pic-a-nic basket‘

 

 

“Soon they were all sitting on the rocky ledge, which was still warm, watching the sun go down into the lake. It was the most beautiful evening, with the lake as blue as a cornflower and the sky flecked with rosy clouds. They held their hard-boiled eggs in one hand and a piece of bread and butter in the other, munching happily. There was a dish of salt for everyone to dip their eggs into.

‘I don’t know why, but the meals we have on picnics always taste so much nicer than the ones we have indoors,’ said George.”
― Enid Blyton, Five Go Off in a Caravan

 

 

 

Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don’t think that I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh, no
– MacArthur Park by Jimmy Webb

 

 

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain
Because today’s the day the
Teddy Bears have their picnic
– Teddy Bears Picnic by Anne Murray

 

 

“There he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a simple meal, in which, remembering the stranger’s origin and preferences, he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes.”
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows