A 1951 Plea to Mend Manners

Early disposable picnic and camping utensils were wisely made from wood, not plastic. Wood remains a smart, natural choice over plastic, for the picnicking and camping world’s disposable dining implements, even 70 years after this article was written.

A resolution which many Californians might make, if the comments of the custodians of our state and national parks and of our highway authorities are any guide, is to mend their outdoor manners.

As our seashore, mountain and forest vacation areas fill up with some of the vastly augmented population which has poured into California during the past decade, it becomes more than ever necessary to pick up bottles, cans, paper and other litter and “leave a clean camp” for the next fellow.

At recent meetings where the 1951 vacation season was reviewed, speakers reported that, if anything, worse manners instead of better were on display during the past year. All agreed that unless manners are mended use of the park and recreation areas will become more disagreeable, may have to be curtailed.

Some authorities go so far as to wash their hands of the present generation and say the only hope of improvement is to inculcate good outdoor manners in the rising generation. But whether anything better can be expected from youngsters whose parents set them a horrible example in scattering picnic lunch and camp refuse far and wide, is debatable.

A little consideration and almost negligible effort is all that is required to do your bit in this regard. It is the decent, sporting thing to do and it is essential in a crowded world. Let's all review our conduct and if necessary resolve to mend our outdoor manners in 1952. -Regional News Service, San Francisco, December, 1951

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Gilded Age Picnicking Etiquette

Avoid conflicting contusions upon your next neighbor by grabbing wildly at the olive dish. If you do thus grab for it, he is likely to do the same thing at the same moment. Cruel bodily injuries have resulted from this course of action. The danger arises from the fact that olives are the staff of life at picnics.

Follow the Rules Of Conduct

There are certain principles of conduct with regard to picnics which it is well to observe. For one thing, never go early to a picnic. If you do go early you will have to carry tubs containing ice cream freezers, packed in ice, pails of water, rugs and garden seats and perform a great many other laborious tasks. A picnic is a good deal like coasting, except that it is the other way around—the hard work comes before the fun instead of after it. When a picnic is over and most of the things are eaten up it is not much work to sweep dishes together and carry them away. But the getting of them there is terrible. So it is a point of reasonable conduct to come a little late. 

Another point is to decline nothing that is offered in the way of food. Don’t refuse rolls on the expectation of getting sandwiches, because you may not get the sandwiches. Keep the rolls; you needn't eat them if you get the sandwiches. Another point—avoid conflicting contusions upon your next neighbor by grabbing wildly at the olive dish. If you do thus grab for it, he is likely to do the same thing at the same moment. Cruel bodily injuries have resulted from this course of action. The danger arises from the fact that olives are the staff of life at picnics. 

Gentlemen in waiting upon ladies, should occasionally furtively bolt a sandwich as a matter of prevision, since the eatables may all be consumed or the inevitable rainstorm come up before the ladies are fully waited upon. Any one can get through a picnic day safely and comfortably without ice cream, macaroons, frosted cake or other delicacies, but sustenance of some sort he must have. For this reason, as one passes behind a tree in the course of his admirable struggle to see that the ladies have everything, he should rapidly swallow a sandwich. With attention to a few prudent details such as these, picnics may be deprived of fully one-half of their terrors. —Boston Transcript, 1892

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia