No cooking today because I’m blessed to be working for a company that still provides a summer picnic for the employees. At least 1,000 people attend for the day of fun activities on this huge recreational farm called Smokey Glen.
They set up food pavilions, a zipline, softball, volleyball, miniature golf, bingo, horseshoes, basketball, “Olympic” games contests, batting and golf contests, and lots of stuff for little kids like face painting, crafts, temporary tattoos, balloon makers, a moon bounce, etc. Years ago, I actually won a trophy for the batting and golf contest and last year my daughter took the batting trophy, so you can see we really get into this special day.
Most importantly, there’s the food. When the party opens at lunch time, there are hot dogs, kosher dogs, hamburgers, vegie burgers, chips, and soft pretzels. The pretzels are warmed in huts over hot coals. There’s unlimited soda, water, beer, and wine. For dinner they have BBQ ribs, chicken, corn on the cob, beans, a lot of different salads, fruit, ice cream and cookies.
This is an example of a day where I don’t concern myself with who eats what – the kids probably have more sno-cones than they can count. I always get the ice cream because it comes in little paper cups like they had at school when I was a kid, with the flat piece of wood that you use as a spoon. I took a glance to see if the ingredients were on the ice cream and they were; I didn’t bother to read them. And this year my daughter and I won the golf and batting trophies again, although I came really close to nailing an elderly woman with one of my wild horseshoe pitches. We’re completely exhausted when we leave there but also very content.
