Birth of a Picnic:
A Brief History of the All School, All-Class, Reunion Picnic
by Gail Turpin (1976)

Back in the year 2000, the classes of 1974 through 1977 had a joint reunion at the Hilton Hotel in Concord. I found out about it through an old friend/classmate I had contacted through Classmates.com. Even though I didn’t graduate from Pleasant Hill High School, my friend encouraged me to come to the reunion. At the reunion date grew closer, people started asking about the picnic scheduled for the day after the reunion at Pleasant Hill Park. Most were wondering if it was only for the classes at the reunion or was anyone invited. Some one made the decision to let anyone from Pleasant Hill High School come to the picnic.

 A few months later, I start getting messages and e-mails from people wanting to know when the next picnic was going to be held. Why me? Your guess is as good as any - so I started checking around and found that a few people from classes in the early 70’s were working on a picnic for 2001 at Pleasant Hill Park and I lent a hand notifying people via Classmates.com. It kind of snowballed from there. In 2002 we ended up with the site way back in the corner and some people weren’t too happy - lack of parking and too far to haul stuff. Everyone had a great time though and the word was getting around that this was going to be an annual thing.

 I ended up the picnic coordinator for the 2003 Picnic and wasn’t able to reserve Pleasant Hill Park in time, so I checked around and found that Concord Community Park was the only park available, so I reserved their largest site for the picnic. I did some research on the other parks in the area and found that most weren’t big enough for our group and a few didn’t allow us to have our favorite adult beverage. Others didn’t have adequate parking or other problems. Reserving the site at Concord Community Park worked out very well, even with grumbles that the picnic wasn’t in Pleasant Hill, because the site was big enough for everyone to spread out and enjoy themselves, the parking was relatively easy as it goes all the way around the site and people didn’t have to tote their stuff very far. Plus, we can still have our favorite adult beverage at the picnic.

Since then, I’ve been the picnic coordinator and I’ve loved every minute of it. Just remember, most of this wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for the original reunion organizers back in 2000, Bonnie Oram, Melanie Clark Phillips, Chris Looney Crecelius, Sunny Jelonek Sanchez, and MaryAnn Hunt. Without their help, I wouldn’t have been able to get anything done. Jerry 4