A Moveable Feast

Oh, yes, this looks like a good idea!

This delightful (and safe! don’t forget safe!) idea comes from my nutty friend Betty Crocker from her 1960s vintage Good and Easy Cookbook. It certainly will be easy to plow into the picnic table with this thing. But it will not be good.

And won’t that grill thing slide around or fall off? And what if the kids decide to push it all over the yard? And isn’t the wheelbarrow kind of – dirty? Because people use them to haul dirt and stuff. Because that is what wheelbarrows are made for!

You ought to see our wheelbarrow. I sure as hell wouldn’t be cooking a steak in it!

I suppose for dessert Betty will be suggesting that we, oh, I don’t know – make a pie in the back garden (mud pie, what else)? Toss the salad in the sandbox, and sit on upended compost bins.

Have a lovely 4th of July barbecue – or whatever you are having (we are having celebratory roast veggie pita pizzas)! And watch out for those wheelbarrows.

The Invisible Bicentennial T Shirt

Sounds like the title of a Richard Brautigan poem, doesn’t it?

A very happy 4th of July to all of you in the US! I was thinking about the July 4th when I was going on 14, in 1976, which as you know was the Bicentennial year. There were Tall Ships in New York Harbor and we actually went to see them. Even though I remember plenty about being almost 14 I don’t have any memory of those Tall Ships except that I got a T shirt out of the occasion. That was a big deal! It is still around our house, worn and liked by the next generation, though somewhat the worse for wear.

I don’t know where it is at the moment, but it is around somewhere. So no pictures! But it is white, with blue bands around the neck and sleeves, has got red tall ships on it and says July 4, 1976 under that. There you go!

The real Tall Ships were not red, of course. Here are some cool photos from somebody who was not only there, but actually retained some useful Bicentennial information (and brought a camera, unlike me).

I’ll be back later with a retro recipe and/or ad semi-appropriate to the holiday. Until then, happy whatever-you-are-doing, and have a patriotic piece of cake for me!

Lovely picture from NYPL Digital Gallery, link here.