Wooden Picnic Tables

Oh how these three words "wooden picnic tables" bring back memories of wonderful times when we were kids. Those beautiful moments with our families in the back yard around the wooden picnic tables...

I remember helping my dad build our first wooden picnic table when I was a kid. It was a simple design, from plans that he got out of the library. It was quite recognizable – almost iconic. It looked exactly like all of those wooden picnic tables which you see when you go out to the park, except a bit more rustic.

My dad liked the unfinished look in his wooden picnic tables, as he did in all of his furniture, and that saved us quite a bit of valuable time in sanding, staining, and all of the other bits that often go into a more refined level of furniture construction.

Living in Maine, with its harsh winters, we went through plenty of wooden picnic tables, but we never bought a single one. My father did not believe in buying anything that he could have fun making on his own, and wooden picnic tables were no exception.

Some quite nice, sturdy pine could be had very cheap around our home, and he made quite a side occupation for himself out of the fabricating and fashioning of furniture. He would even sell some of it off after my mother told him that the house was quite cluttered enough, thank you very much. But of course, the wooden picnic tables were my favorite.

I loved to sit out in gardens, parks, and other places where I could commune with the great outdoors at wooden picnic tables, just day dreaming and looking off at the sky. Even to this very day, I am a great day dreamer, but back then, I was second to none. I have never put much stock in all of the newfangled wooden picnic tables which you can buy today.

The ones shaped like octagons or circles, the ones which are really just thinly disguised dining room furniture never did it for me.

Give me a plain bench where I can stretch out and look at the sky after I have finished eating, and I will be a happy man. That is what I like so much about the classic wooden picnic tables.

The bench is such a classic and versatile design, good for sitting, lying, cuddling, dozing, and just about anything else that you could want to get up to in the outdoors. And with a simple, flat table right in front of you, what could be better than wooden picnic tables for a peaceful afternoon read, or a sit by a cool stream.

Go ahead, feel free to remember the good old days around the wooden picnic tables and I urge you to relive those moments with your own kids or with your grandchildren if you are blessed with any as yet.