Memorial Day picnics

I think I mentioned our family Memorial Day picnics before. This picture was taken in 1959 or 1960. That's me, with the typical 50s glasses standing face forward and my little brother (he'll kill me, he's bigger than I am now) Mark (with the baseball cap and glasses). My mom is sitting next to me with her hand holding her chin. Isn't she beautiful. My mother was truly a beautiful woman in all respects, looks, demeanor, and spiritually. But I digress, as this is supposed to be about Memorial Day picnics.

I don't remember for how many years we actually had these picnics, but I do remember how much fun they were. The whole Italian side of the family -- or at least as many as were in the neighborhood -- came and everyone brought food. Now, I have/had a lot of cousins, and many of those cousins had spouses and children of their own. The picnics were physically located at Aunt Anne's and Uncle Joe's (Egitto) house and the party was in the yard. Aunt Anne had a nice yard for a picnic -- flat and long.

One part of the day's events was a trip to an iris garden in Allen, PA. The irises were almost finished their year cycle by Memorial Day, but I remember Aunt Anne, my mom, and once or twice, Aunt Fran oohing and aahing over the variety of these beautiful flowers. Personally, I thought the visit to the iris garden was boring (at that time in my life), but as I look back, I appreciate the visions I have of those beautiful flowers, which are now, one of my favorites.

When I left New Jersey and we moved to Cincinnati, OH, my mom gave me some starts from her irises (she, too, had a beautiful garden) and those irises are STILL alive and well at that house -- although we no longer live there.

I remember some of the food stuff that we got to enjoy, as each person had a different special dish. Aunt Anne made a delicious macaroni salad, my mom's potato salad was special, Aunt Rita usually made an anti pasta. Every familybrought a dessert of some sort, and Uncle Joe (Egitto) grilled burgers or hot dogs. At least that's what I recall.

We played horseshoes, I think. Of course, since Aunt Anne's house had a ping-pong table, that sport was also part of the activities.

There were no fireworks, no schedule of events, just lots of good family fun. And, yes, funny family stories. I remember most that we laughed a lot!