For Wilshire Baptist Church
pandemnic (pan-dem-nick) Noun : A picnic held in a responsible, socially-distant manner, during a pandemic. Verb : To pandemnick with friends.
So, has anyone else been having pandemnics during the pandemic? We’ve had four so far and we’ll have another this week. We may schedule more if this season of isolation continues.
I’d like to say it was our idea, but it wasn’t. Our friends Scott and Denise suggested they bring takeout dinner to our turquoise table and we come outside and join them from our porch. We said, “Sure,” but we came off the porch and set up at a card table with our own dinner six feet away. It was shady and breezy and we enjoyed catching up on family and business and life in general. We had such a great time pandemnicking with the two of them that we invited a family of four to fill up the turquoise table a week later while we sat nearby. And then after describing the concept, we were invited to pandemnick with another couple in their yard, and we followed that with another friend back at our turquoise table.
It’s hard to explain what makes a pandemnic so special. It mostly just feels refreshing to connect with folks in person for a change instead of by social media or Zoom. But there also is the adventure of not knowing what may happen during a pandemnic, especially if you are out in your front yard or on the corner as is the case with us. We’ve seen rabbits and birds, including Mockingbirds fighting — or mating? — in the street. Living a half block from Avenue D (Texas 78) in downtown Garland, we heard a car wreck and left the table to see what happened. Nobody was injured from what we can tell, and when a firetruck circled by our house after leaving the scene, we waved it down and offered the firefighters some homemade brownies but they politely declined. We’ve had lots of strangers pass by and we’ve waved and they’ve waved back. And when a friend from church drove by unexpectedly, I left the table to talk to her from the curb and check on her family.
None of that would have happened to us if we were eating inside or out at a restaurant. It only happened because we stayed home but didn’t stay inside. Pandemnicking has a way of slowing life down and taking some of the edge off the stressed psyche. Pandemnicking feels a lot like Mayberry — sitting on the steps, cranking the ice cream freezer, talking congenially about everything and even nothing at all. “Nice, ain’t it Pa?” “Yep, Opie, sure is nice.”
Pandemnicking is a gift to share during these uncertain times.