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Picnics at Lonely Park
July is the official beginning of picnic season to me, and I am ready for a series of happy picnics at creaky, splintery old gray picnic tables under ice-torn brave old trees in "Lonely Park," my nickname for two venerable parks in Troy. When I was a little girl, the traditional Fourth of July picnic menu featured fried chicken and green beans with new potatoes and sliced tomatoes from the garden (yes, they were ready by July there). We might have had baked beans or macaroni and cheese, too, but we always had Mom's potato salad, and white cake or blackberry pie for dessert. Here and now, it seems, picnics are almost passé. Most of my friends and acquaintances grill meals fairly often. But even if they eat outside, it's not an occasion. It's not a picnic. You need to be at a picnic table in a park for a real picnic. One of my favorite picnic spots here in Troy is in a park I have nicknamed "Lonely Park," because try as I might, I couldn't find out the name of the park. I did find an old and tired stone pedestal with a square angled space and a few scattered round rusty spots-clearly the post where the nameplate once had been. But the nameplate was gone. "How sad," I thought. "This old park is nameless, anonymous now. No one cares about it any more. It's-Lonely Park!" So I made it a point to throw my first picnic there, and it was a happy time, an occasion, a celebration, even if I didn't spend hours frying chicken and making salads. (We had takeout from a wonderful Troy deli.) At another lonely old park, I happily celebrated the day I found my downtown apartment. We had glorious Chinese takeout, and we ate and drank iced-tea toasts to homes and picnics and childhood fun. My guest, who grew up in Troy, remarked that this park was his favorite park in the world. "How sad," I thought. "How can he love anything so old and run down?" But, after all, I had chosen the sad old park for my picnic celebration. Because I know that what looks lonely may be just the other side of peaceful and quiet. And when you look at what you love, you don't see how old and gray and weather-worn it is. You see what you love. I don't love crowds, so I won't give away my favorite lonely-park picnic spots. But it is July-picnic season. Give an old park and an old custom a try! Here's my mom's potato salad dressing to get you started (Warning! For experienced cooks only). In cooperation with Troy United Ink Corp., a not-for-profit corporation 
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