Uncle Jack's Picnic
1957-1990
Compiled By A Bunch Of Nieces And Nephews
And A Couple Of Their Mothers
October, 1996
Part Three
Western Electric supplied favors as you drove into the picnic area and presented your tickets. Sewing kits and rain bonnets for the women and plastic cups or glasses for everyone, Frisbees for the kids and small bags of pretzels and chips and many other things I can't even remember just now. (Key chains, maybe?)
-Helen
Remember all the little gadgets they gave out as you came into the parking field – the AT&T visors, the gadget to dial the phone, the AT&T plastic cups, the Wise potato chips, etc.? And all the door prizes they gave away?
-Fran
The telephone key chains are my favorite. I have lots of little telephones that I used with my Barbie dolls.
-Patty
There was great music, first chosen and delivered by Mr. Rogan and later on by paid professionals. Toward the end of the day there was a raffle and the prizes were quite substantial. In the Rogan camp, there was general relaxation around raffle time, so some people would stay back at the tables and the more energetic (or eager) would walk to the raffle holding all the tickets for the group. I don't remember and what anyone else one but I do remember that I held Bob Mackreth's ticket when his number was called for a black-and-white television set. I yelled "I've got it I got it!" when they called his number, and the MC said, "Lady, this isn't bingo!" Jack, who went to every raffle, helped me carry the TV back to the table and Big Bob scoffed, "Very funny, Mac," when he saw the TV box. He thought we were being wise guys – playing a trick on everyone. We had the last laugh when we told him his was the winning ticket.
-Helen
1987- Waiting for the signal
There were sack races and three-legged races and every year I knew I'd win. Competition was stiff though, sometimes from your own relatives! The best thing about the games, in the end, was that if you needed a partner, there were always cousins to call on.
-Monica
They held races and games and supplied prizes for the winners and consolation prizes for anyone who competed. I know Billy won the crawling backward race and won a soft, stuffed, giant dog which he named for favorite canine character in one of his books, "Pantambloom," that is, "Pantaloon." I know we all did the sack race and the egg race, and the spoon race, and the egg throwing contest.
-Helen
I did win the crawling race, and I got the prize for it, but there was another year when I should have won one of the races, but I got gypped out of it. It was the walking backwards race, and the prize was a scooter. I was all the way to one side of the field, and the judges must not have seen me, but Mom and Uncle Jack were adamant that I crossed the finish line first. So Uncle Jack went out that week and bought me a scooter because he thought I should've got the prize.
-Bill
1987- The Joy of Sacks
There was that time Mel and Bob ran in the three-legged race. At the end, Bob just picked Mel up and carried her.
-Frannie Gene
I ran in the three-legged races, too. I remember that first they used black electrical tape to tape the partners together, then in last four years, you just stepped into a burlap sack, like the one they used in the sack race.
-Bill
The time that Mike lost his pants in the sack race?, Well, he was wearing shorts, and he had his wallet in his back pocket, and it kept catching on the sack. Every time he jumped he could feel his shorts slipping down, but Mike's favorite expression is, "Winners never quit and quitters never win," so he just kept on jumping. By the time he reached the finish line, his pants were in the sack. He didn't win, but at least he finished.
-Kathy
Patty won a big, three-foot doll in the walking-backwards race one year. Bobby was there at the finish line and picked her up as soon as she came across and made sure everyone knew she got there first.
-Helen
1987- Good catch!
The egg tossing contest was the high point, though. There were all these guys with megaphones standing on the sidelines, shouting encouragement.
-Bill
1987- Easy now, Bill!
I really liked the egg tossing contest. Usually, just before that, they would have the spoon race, where the women would run down the field holding a spoon in their mouth and an egg in the spoon. I know Mom ran in that a few times. But really, that seemed pretty weak tea next to the egg toss – now, that was cool.
I remember at least a couple of years I partnered up with Aunt Dede, which I liked, because she had the best throw of all the grown-up women. You'd stand pretty close together at first, and just tossed them gently that was no problem, and you had to be really clumsy to break one at that distance. And you have to start backing away from one another. The guys with the bullhorns would tell everyone to take a step back, and then once everyone was lined up, you'd make your next throw. Once you got more than 20 feet apart, people started breaking eggs and dropping out.
Catching was really the key, not the throwing. Everybody knew enough to lobby eggs underhand, gently. Where you won or lost was in catching. Follow-through was everything – you had to kind of meet the a in mid-air, then let your cupped hands follow its trajectory downward, slowing it gradually. If you get it right, you stopped just before the ground. If you didn't you got a handful of egg yuck.
I never won the contest, but there were a couple of years Aunt Dede and I were among the last pairs still on the line. When it was all over, they would have the ritual egg-cracking, just to make sure nobody snuck in with a hard-boiled egg.
-Bob
Did anybody mention the time the Indians came?
A bunch of Indians came in and did a powwow. I was very little. You can put in that I remember Indians coming, and everyone else can refute it. My mother remembers them, too, and so does Aunt Helen, but we can't remember which place it was.
-Frannie Gene
We loved the sky divers. I think they were in Fran's favorites.
-Helen
1987- Sky divers!
Mel: The sky divers only started once we got to Heckscher.
Bob: Yeah. I wonder if there even would've been a place for them to land at Bethpage. Maybe the polo field, but I don't think they would've let them land there. Were you there that time we went out and ran around on the polo field?
Mel: Sure.
Bob: The park cop came out and rousted us.
Mel: That was what inspired you to make your career choice.
Bob: Right. Just love rousting those kids off polo fields.
In 1987, Uncle Mac, the girls, and I went to a McCarthy wedding in New Jersey. One of the sky divers got stuck in a tree that year. But like the song says in Dumbo, "I didn't see it, I only heard it."
-Fran
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