Potluck

TRAVELING & PICNIC MEALS

By Mary Emma Allen

Family trips of my childhood still loom high in my memories.  Our travels consisted of Mother and Father, four children, several suitcases, a toy for each, and picnic supplies in a four-door Studebaker and later a Ford.  When ran out of space to hold the luggage, Father secured some on the running board with a specially made rack.

When families mention the need for a van nowadays, I wonder how Mother and Father endured it with six of us in the car.  Also, there was no air conditioning for those summer trips from New York State to New Hampshire or South Stukely, Quebec to see relatives.  One year we traveled to Washington, DC and then Virginia to visit friends. 

Other times our travels took us along the St. Lawrence River. Picnic Meals In those days, after World War II and the early 1950s, fast food restaurants were very few, if they existed at all.  Our meals consisted of picnics along the route and Mother cooking supper and breakfast in the kitchenette of the cabin on our hot plate.  (Was this really a vacation for her?)

Sometimes the picnics were unexpected.  A tire went flat and Father had to stop, patch the inner tube and change the tire.  To keep us children occupied, Mother brought out the picnic supplies. Other times, we stopped at a roadside park, viewing area or school yard with swings, slides and seesaws.  No one seemed to mind that we played on there during these summer trips when school wasn't in session.

Nowadays with ice chests and even those you can plug into the cigarette lighter of the car, you can carry a greater variety of foods than Mother did.  We often stopped at a grocery in the morning and picked up supplies for the day.  Today's Picnic Makings They might include the following found at grocery stores and deli counters:

• Fruit in individual serving containers
• Cheese and crackers in individual packages or separately...great standbys
• Tomatoes and cucumbers to slice on sandwiches or to eat with the meal
• Fresh fruit of types that carry well
• Hard-boiled eggs.  Mother often boiled extra when she prepared breakfast
• Carrots and other munchy vegetables.  You even can purchase these all prepare in individual packages.
• Peanut butter, soy butter or almond butter to spread on crackers, veggies or for sandwiches.
• Individual packages of chips, cookies and other snacks
• Prepared sandwich fillings (sometimes accompanied with crackers) of tuna salad, chicken salad or ham salad.
• Small servings of sandwich fillings and salads at deli counters.