Personal Reminisces; Of Summer Picnics, BBQ Chicken, & Iced Soda

When I was a boy in the late 60s I fondly remember that my mother’s workplace (Sealed Power in Lagrange Indiana) would have a summer picnic. Now, what boy doesn’t like picnics? The minute one hit the fairgrounds one could smell the BBQ chicken being grilled on the long outside grills. Those grills seemed to be endless. There was so much BBQ chicken being cooked a boy wondered if there might be a chicken shortage over the course of the following weeks and we ate BBQ chicken like we really did believe that we wouldn’t be eating chicken ever again.

There were also softball games and sports activities to fill the day with. There were chums to ram around the fairgrounds with and once one departed from the car upon arrival one seldom saw their parents again for the rest of the day.

But what I remember best of all was the horse troughs. Sprinkled around the fairgrounds were these huge horse troughs. These beauts were six feet long, two feet wide, and three feet deep. Of course, they had been thoroughly cleaned inside and out. They were amazing and the amazing thing about them is that they were filled with ice. Each and every one of them. A boy could wander all over the fairgrounds and never be far removed from one of these magnificent horse troughs. However, it was not just a matter of ice. Layered in between the different levels of ice were soda bottles. There I was introduced and fell in love with Orange Crush, Grape Nehi, and Frosty Root Beer.

I can remember to this day my arms tingling from the coldness of the ice as I reached down in those horse troughs to search out and find just the right soda I was looking for. There seemed to be a never-ending supply.

I decided then and there that this must be a facet of heaven. Keep in mind that growing up that soda was not something seen in the home. We had all the milk we could ever hope for thanks to my dairy farmer Grandfather but soda was a treat and on these picnic extravaganzas they were a treat I sought to make up for in their absence the rest of the year.

As the day wore on and the ice began to melt and the soda began to diminish we would jump in the horse troughs to cool ourselves down from all our galavanting over the fairgrounds. Playing was hard work you know. We would then be lectured for getting our clothes wet but it was the kind of lecture that was only half-hearted and was mostly comprised of “what are we going to do with these boys.”

This many years later, I occasionally still get a hankering for a Grape Nehi or an Orange Crush. If I see the brands in the store the memory of fairgrounds and BBQ chicken and horse troughs full of ice and soda comes back instantly.

So, half a century or more later, I salute you “Sealed Power” for the wonderful picnic bashes you would put on every summer for your employees.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane