SUNDAY SCHOOL PICNICS

SUNDAY SCHOOL PICNICS

Sunday School Picnics were much anticipated events in my childhood. The date was emblazoned on my mind's calendar from the day it was announced. Two BIG things would definitely happen, and one BIG thing might happen. The most important BIG thing was that I would get to play baseball or softball for hours. The second BIG thing was that I would get to eat many, many different foods on and off all day. My mother always took plenty of food, but this was my chance to sample all the different foods other mothers made, too. There is something about Sunday School Picnics that seem to engender some sort of competition among the women who did the cooking. Each one seemed to have her specialty, and nobody else had better make anything like it. Sunday School Picnics always began with lunch, but there was always enough food for dinner, and enough for intermittent snacking during the afternoon. Grazing off the various foods on the tables seemed to be an activity that involved most of the attendees. The third BIG thing, and it didn't always happen, was that I would get to play horseshoes with the men. Of course, I didn't throw them the correct way, spinning them; I threw them end over end, but they let my points count even though the horseshoe was almost always upside down. It wasn't often that I got to play horseshoes because the men seemed to take it pretty seriously.

Baseball or softball, on the other hand, seemed to be available practically all day. There was usually room for one more player. It didn't seem to matter if there were four outfielders and five infielders; they weren't all-star caliber anyway. If you hit the ball on the ground, there was a pretty good chance of getting on base. No one ever struck out, and no one ever got a base on balls. You had to hit the ball. Even a fly ball could be a good deal if too many fielders tried to camp under it. I loved every minute of it, in the field or at bat. There were, obviously, some good ball players, but they made sure that the rest of us enjoyed the game too. From an earlier blog, you must know that baseball was always a big part of my life as a child, and Sunday School Picnic baseball games were extra special because I got to show my skills, such as they were, to the older guys who I thought were pretty close to big leaguers.

In western Pennsylvania, it wasn't always certain that the weather would be good for the Sunday School Picnic. Weather forecasts became very important that week. More than once I prayed for God to stop the rain that began on Friday. A rain out of the Sunday School Picnic was a serious problem because the place we rented for the picnic wasn't always available the following weekend.

I loved our Sunday School Picnics because of the three BIG things I mentioned above, but there was a Sunday School Picnic at another church that could also raise my level of excitement, the Pokey Picnic! It was held by a sister church in our charge of four churches. They had their own picnic ground across the street from their church in the small town of Wilbur. It was extra intriguing because, even though it was only about four miles from our church, it was in a different school district, and I didn't know most of the kids there.

The Pokey Picnic was a local event that involved more than the church. People from all over the area came to enjoy the day. The church that held it used it for a fund raiser, They sold submarine sandwiches, sodas, ice cream, and even whole meals out of buildings that faced the picnic grounds. Behind the buildings was a small stream, always a place of interest to small boys. I usually managed to get partially soaked at least once during the day. Across the stream was a small hill with untamed, or at least, lesser-trained grass and plants. When I was a small boy, the hill wasn't a small hill, but it became smaller as I got older. The picnic grounds also had a band shell that was raised off the ground and was fronted by plank benches. During the afternoon and evening, various entertainments were presented from the stage. I've been back to the grounds of the Pokey Picnic recently, and I discovered that the spacious picnic grounds of my childhood don't seem nearly as spacious today.

Even though I looked forward to the Pokey Picnic, it never held my interest for the entire day. You see, there was no baseball field.