This week I had to give an extra question on the vocabulary test: What is an American picnic?
I have to do this, you see, because if we don’t ask for a definition, we will end up with a Moroccan picnic on a class outing. Don’t get me wrong, I love Moroccan picnics. It’s just that they’re not terribly practical for people who will be hiking into things like extinct volcanic craters and sinkholes . . . tajines in ceramic containers, picnic baskets the size of Texas, huge bottles of pop, full salads being prepared on site, crates of supplies, meals with multiple courses, and three-layer cream cakes (pictured). Yes, I have had all these things come on outings with kids.
Even these aren’t really Moroccan picnics, because to have a true one, you must also prepare and cook all those items on location, have numerous mats, pillows, and blankets around for everyone to take their naps on after the meal, and have a swing hung in a nearby tree for the kids. Once I invited a Moroccan friend on a picnic in the woods. I had the mat. I had the salad. I had a hot pasta dish. I had dessert. At the end, I asked her, “So, was that a picnic?” “No,” she replied, “that was not a picnic.” She needs to take my vocabulary test.