It’s an English thing; you wouldn’t understand.
I sure don’t. And I’m so glad my Antipodean friend Jacq captured this photo of one of the most peculiar English habits I ever observed in my time there.
Her commentary says it all.
I can’t pretend that, before moving to England, I’d spent any time contemplating how the English might enjoy a picnic, but if I had I suppose my imagination would have conjured up some Jane Austen-style fantasy of cucumber sandwiches under a shady tree. I would have been wrongburger, however: when the English eat a picnic, they do so immediately behind their parked car. This is universal English behaviour and it isn’t dependent on anything like class or status, or what else there might be to see in the general area. The English like to lug their lunch somewhere in the car, park the car, unpack the lunch, sit directly behind their car with lots of cars parked around them, and eat their lunch.
Like me, you might be wondering why somebody would drive around and have lunch in a car park. The English haven’t quite got to the stage where they’ll drive to a concreted car park - of the local supermarket, for example - and eat lunch, but show me a group of cars tidily parked in a field and I’ll show you at least one family eating sandwiches amongst the idling exhaust fumes.
I wish I had a recording of how I laughed and snorted when I read this. Truth, comically expressed, kills me.
Filed under: Life
True, on those occasions when you go out for a drive in the country and it’s not too wet to sit on the grass (ie about 5% of the time) The other 95 times out of 100 we gladly sit *inside* the car and eat our lunch and sip lukewarm tea from a thermos while looking out through rapidly steaming-up windows over green fields, rolling hills or the beach or the sea, or an oil refinery.
And that’s why you love us so much :)
I’m not quite sure about this one- my experience is that they/we actually remain inside the car while eating the food, sometimes due to torrential rain, other times just to avoid… not sure what exactly, probably making the blankets dirty by putting them on the ground or something. Anyway: inside the car is more the norm, I think- but then they/we are harder to spot than the ones behind the car on the grass. So maybe it’s to avoid being noticed- that seems more likely, yes :-)
Heh! I really do love the English very much - it’s just that, every now and then, I catch myself still looking at them and saying ‘what the HELL?’ It’s brilliant - I’m a perpetual tourist, even after living here for nearly 12 years.
They’re called “tailgate parties” in the States, and particularly popular during sporting events. I once wrote a whole feature about the USC-UCLA ones for the LA Times!
Nancy, as I posted at Jacq’s blog: I must defend actual, American-style tailgating! This takes place at sports events, where they turn the entire car park into a big fete, basically - people selling food, beer, etc. Lots of people bring their own portable barbecues and cook up some burgers and sausages on them, but that’s the whole bloody point of tailgating - everyone’s doing it, and they set up facilities and food stands for the express reason! It’s not just rocking up to a car park and eating. (People who tailgate bring folding chairs and tables, and there are usually some provided, too.)