Need Help Finding A Children's Story

Blame my youngest daughter | July 15, 2022 | Me

[Jemian]

Help me out, fellow Bibliophiles! I read a delightful rhyming book to my kids about a British man who takes a vacation to the beach he keeps losing things along the way. One of the lines is, "Oh, well, what's done is done. I think I'll picnic in the sun." Part of the charm of this book is finding the places where these items were forgotten. For example, the umbrella was left on the bus and we see it in the window as the bus pulls away.

CAN ANYONE TELL ME THE NAME OF THAT WONDERFUL BOOK?

[Jemian]

My daughter would like to read it to her children, aka my beloved grandchildren.

[ought-six]

You may want to check the old classic book, “A Child’s Garden of Verses.” It has quite a few stories.

[CrazyCatChick]

I don’t know how active this site is, but you might try here: https://www.oldchildrensbooks.net/

[LastDayz]

Olaf Reads?

[Steven Scharf]

What’s done is done is shakespearan. The book must be really obscure, Google did not have any hits on either parts of the sentences.

[Jemian]

Nope, thanks anyway. I’m familiar with “A Child’s Garden of Verses.” This was a stand-alone book, not in an anthology, and was published, maybe not the first publication, in the 1980s.

[csvset]

The Lost Picnic by B.B. Cronin ?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33674141-the-lost-picnic

[Jemian]

Yup. I’ve done the google search.

[Bookwoman]

Could it be Picnic in the Sun: Bertie and Friends hit the Road by Christiane Duchesne?

[Jemian]

I don’t think so. Olaf sounds Norwegian to me. This was definitely set in England. Thank you, though.

[ought-six]

“Nope, thanks anyway. I’m familiar with “A Child’s Garden of Verses.” This was a stand-alone book, not in an anthology, and was published, maybe not the first publication, in the 1980s.”

Ah.

I’m in my 70s now, as is my brother; my sister is closing in on us. When we were little our mother — who was British — would read to us from that book. We loved it, and we loved the pictures.

[Jemian]

I’m searching through there now. Great reference. Thanks.

[Jemian]

No, but a similar plot.

[dainbramaged]

There’s a very short old poem called Fleas: Adam had ‘em.

[Jemian]

Now you’re tempting me. I love bits of doggerel.

[dainbramaged]

My favorite poet is Robert Service, the people's poet. Not really for small children, I discovered him around age 12. There is a high school in Anchorage, Alaska named after the man.
The Cremation of Sam McGee is very good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lBkuz1TlVc&t=194s

[ArtDodger]

On my first trip to Japan, I went to a restaurant on a rainy day and left my umbrella in the Genkan (vestibule). It was Japan, right? Honest folks. When I came out my new umbrella was gone! I said, ‘Someone stole it!’
The Japanese lady I was with replied, ‘ Not stolen. Someone borrowed it and just hasn’t brought it back, yet.!

[Jemian]

I love that attitude!

BTW, did you get it back?

[ArtDodger]

yeah, it was quite an eye opener into the Japanese mentality. The first of many. No... the stolen umbrella never came back.

[MHGinTN]

When I was a child (I'm 77 this August) my grandfather on the porch at night, holding his lit Quinrtessa Cigar to keep the mosquitos at bay, would recite long poems which told a story. He had memorized these poems for recitation Saturday when the buckboard and hiorse took the kids to Jonesboro (in East Tennessee; current site of 'Story Tellin' festival) I'm sure you've heard 'Little Orphan Annie came to our house to stay, to wash the cups and saucers and brush the crumbs aaway'; but have you ever heard "the Haunted Pond' or Darius Green and His Flyin' Machine?

The first poem he taught me to recite was Twenty Froggies. His working on my memory abilities is why I enjoyed Chess so much and can still memorize long strings of numbers using the four digit 'word' method.