This pastoral tableau, established to demonstrate the
various pleasures of dining al fresco
by substituting adults for children, is typical of the 1970s-era utopianism
envisioned as an extension of William Blake’s timeless homage to England’s
place in the pantheon of places clearly touched by the hand, if not the stylist
employed by, God.
Behold, for example, the spread itself: the wholesome bounty
of fruit alongside what look like fried chicken legs, a quiche, and cake. Each
child has his or her own giant can of Coca-Cola, which, because it is pre-1984,
is as close to wholesome as a soda can get, being made of actual cane sugar
rather than high-fructose corn syrup.
How civilized are their accoutrements: the yellow-check
cloth, the knives and forks, the wicker picnic basket itself, open like a shall
disgorging its riches. No ants threaten to intrude upon the diner’s peace,
though the ducks might.
Note too, the way gender roles have been firmly established
for our young actors: the girls demurely managing the food upon that domestic
square, while the boys carve out their own space upon the bank, where they
angle for fish to prove their mastery over nature, and perhaps to justify this
jaunt into the wilds of a manicured lawn.
Oh, how soon all this will change: the girls, drawn into
strange and mystical moods and shapes by raging hormones, will slouch and moon,
turning inevitably towards the incessant cat fighting that will dominate the
rest of their teenage years. The boys, however, will not budge an inch —
content to sit in the quiet company of their own kind upon the banks of some
river, their rods cast into the waters dangling bait and hopes and dreams.
While the bows of burning gold shall rest in their hands
hung with hooks, arrows of desire shall strike the girl’s hearts. The girls
shall dream of spears while the boys imagine the chariots of fire they shall
one day drive. Till they have built Jerusalem in England’s green & pleasant
land, they will have to be content with a picnic, and afterwards, plenty of
calamine lotion to soothe the sun’s wounds.
Freezer Feast: Cooking
For and From the Freezer, Caroline Rennie, 1973
