Backyard Picnic: 1960

Looks like what's being ladled into those Dixie cups is red Kool-Aid. The favorite drink of kids from the era.

I sold a set of four of those and a matching round table on Craigslist last year. Same color, probably about the same vintage.

Notice a stack of Dixie Cups on the table, but we are drinking from the durable, washable plastic tumblers. The two "Dixies" that are upright have spoons in them. Maybe to serve Aunt Dora's special homemade relish? From the way they are stacked, I'll bet the plastic utensils get washed too.

I love the variety of chairs: the plastic web loungers, the wooden-frames with canvas backs & seats and that metal one that most likely leave a scallop-shaped impression in your back.

By the way, the ketchup is "Ideal," the house brand of the local Acme Market.

Hubby and I have two of them out back, both gotten at auctions.

When our parents' picnic table reached the age of about 40 years and had rotted to the point that it was structurally finished, my youngest brother and I threw it on the bonfire and watched the flames leap higher than a man, a long-suppressed wish of ours. Bonus treat was the unexpected sight of it burning: looked like a giant BBQ grill on fire. Nice smell, too, the cedar.

When I was a kid everybody had that table.

tasty Heinz pickles and some kind of generic local-brand ketchup. Otherwise, everything else seems homemade, as it was back then.

And don't forget real Dixie brand cups, the only kind being sold then.

[There were many brands of paper cups. A major competitor starting around 1920 was the Lily Cup. - Dave]

My father bought an identical solid redwood picnic table in southern California, in 1960 no less (a year before I was born in LA). We moved back to northern Missouri in 1963 to be closer to Mom's parents and that was one of the very few large items that made the move. It served as our kitchen table for a few years. It's been refinished a few times and is showing its age (Missouri winters are rough compared to LA's) but is still in use up on my deck and I hope to pass it on.

I'll take the radio.