SJ Bill Remembers Picnics at Washington's Crossing Park

SJ Bill Remembers Picnics at Washington's Crossing Park

SJBill wrote:

Washington's Crossing State Park, indeed! It was an awesome
place with the pavillions and the baseball fields across
the drive. So was Bowman's Hill, over in Pennsy.
These picnic groves were great places to get away from
the city. The only real sounds we heard were the kids and
folks having fun and games. You could hear the sound of
quoits slamming into each other or rolling around the pins,
or the cheers following a softball or hardball being hit
to the outfield. The only wildlife I recall was
yellow-jackets. We were always fending them off because
they were attracted to Kerns orange soda more than anything.
How about the charcoal grills charcoal grills that started
real slow and smelled/tasted of kerosene for hours. They
never really got going until after all your food was eaten.
Hot dogs cracked and hamburgers shrunk and had to be covered
with mustard and/or ketchup and chopped onions. The taste of
kerosene was a normal part of picnics. Wasn't there an old
fashioned charcoal roaster in Trenton before briquets came
onto the market?
One more thing I remember from church picnics at Washington's
Crossing was the dry ice for the ice cream. Just shove a piece
of the stuff into an empty soda bottle (without getting your
fingers frozen) and fill the bottle with some water from the
drinking water faucets. Fog bubbled out of the bottles as we
ran around with them. And there was the spring water place
down by the River at McKonkey's Ferry House - it closed
following the big flood during the 50s. Boy was that water
tasty! We filled gallon glass bleach bottles before picnics
and brought water home afterwards.
Great times for kids

This is great SJ, Thanks for the memories:)

UPDATE
My Dad Ed MacNicoll adds...
Bill, I was born here. I lived on the hill just across from
the "Tally Ho Bar" near the bridge. Right where Old George
was reported to have crossed. However that was a few weeks
ago..Ha! Ha!