Discourse Can Be Main Course at Picnic Tables

By: Kathy Moran

If you’re like most Americans, you’ll be spending a lot of time this summer sitting at a picnic table, mouth watering, waiting for the food to cook. As hungry as you may be, however, it’s impossible to deny that the anticipation of the outdoor meal is as important a part of the picnic ritual as the food itself. Indeed, savoring the aroma of succulent burgers, hot dogs, chicken, or steaks on a grill is almost as delicious as eating them. Another significant part of the tradition is passing the time in conversation with your fellow picnickers, which serves, not only as a bonding experience, but as a way to take your minds off the hunger pangs as well. The more stimulating the subject, the more effectively it distracts from growling stomachs, perhaps because it gives everybody something to (ahem!) chew on. The next time you’re sitting around a picnic table with other ravenous revelers, give them a morsel that’s more than a mouthful, by telling them that the father of the automobile, Henry Ford, is also the founder of their feast – in a way. You see, the grills on his cars were not the only ones that concerned him. In the early 1920’s, as scrap wood from components of his Model T was piling up, and simply being discarded, Ford began looking for an efficient way to use it. Along with a relative, E.G. Kingsford, a lumberman and owner of one of his first dealerships, Ford set up a charcoal manufacturing plant next to the assembly line. There, the charcoal was ground, combined with starch, formed into briquettes, and sold, under Ford’s name, in his dealerships, touted as "the perfected fuel with a hundred uses." It was around 1950 that the charcoal was renamed for Kingsford. Now, that conversation should be enough to keep everyone occupied until the food is ready. Just as you do your part, by bringing juicy tidbits like this to the table, AllPicnicTables.com does its part by bringing quality to the table. Devoted to giving their customers the ultimate outdoor dining experience, year after year, AllPicnicTables.com offers hundreds of tables in every shape, size, and color, to fit any porch, deck, gazebo, patio, yard, décor, occasion, lifestyle, and budget. Besides decay-resistant cedar, oak, and pine, AllPicnicTables.com features practically indestructible aluminum, thermo-plastic, vinyl, and polywood tables. Along with the classic rectangular ones, you’ll also find hexagonal, octagonal, square, round, and oval picnic tables, with benches attached or detached. There’s also a great collection of cherry and teak dining sets that are suitable for the most elegant outdoor affairs. Whatever your preference, you’ll find it at AllPicnicTables.com. If you’re craving a table that you don’t see on the site, contact one of their design consultants or customer service representatives, at 1-888-293-2339, or contact@allpicnictables.com, to have it customized. If you’re still famished for table talk, here’s a bonus bite: Ford’s charcoal assembly plant was designed by his good friend, Thomas Alva Edison.

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