Call me weird or old fashioned if you must, but I've always thought that there was something sort of classy about wooden picnic tables. I can barely even remember when we got our first wooden picnic table. I know that it was when I was a kid. I remember how excited my dad was - I think that he built the wooden picnic table himself, or at least assembled it from a kit, although I do not know for sure. Anyway, I remember us having our first picnic in the backyard, and during that picnic, I remember watching a single ladybug crawling along the wooden picnic table. I do not know how long I stared at it, but it must have been forever. For some reason, I had been completely fascinated by this ladybug, and just simply could not get enough of watching it crawl and crawl.
Lunch must have been great that afternoon, although I would hardly say that it was a picnic, since it was right in the backyard. My mother brought out bread, cold cuts, and her famous home made potato salad (the thought of which still makes my mouth water to this day) and set everything down on the wooden picnic table for us to dig in. And dig in we did. I remember that, by the time I was done with the meal, I had to lay in the grass for what seemed like hours just to give the food time to digest. I do not remember exactly what I saw in the clouds, but it sure must have been interesting back then, because after I finished eating my meal at our brand new wooden picnic table, I spent hours and hours staring at it.
Now that I am on my own, I had to think about wooden picnic tables from the other end - trying to find one to buy. This is harder than it looks. On the surface, any wooden picnic table is about the same as any other, but once you sit down at one, you will realize that this is hardly the case. In point of fact, if you get a bigger, tougher wooden picnic table you will be much happier with it in the long run. If it is reinforced with steel or concrete, then it will last even longer for it. Looking sturdy is not good enough - exposure to the elements will ruin all but the best wooden picnic tables.