I’m a little late this year on one of the most enjoyable ways to spend a leisurely weekend afternoon - the park picnic.

I finally was able to go on a picnic at a park last weekend, but the credit must go to the biggest picnic fan I know, my friend Janice. She thinks of everything. Janice pops into St. Louis once a year and sets up the gathering with a group of us from the metro area. The picnics always are so much more pleasurable than when we’ve met at a restaurant, not to mention cheaper.

As much as I love picnics, I never fully appreciate the peace they offer; the communally sharing of food with others under a vast sky; and the accompanying conversation until I am at the park, sitting on a comforter or at a table laden with surprises my fellow diners pulled out of coolers and picnic baskets.

We used to go on so many picnics when I was a child. My parents would round us up, take us to Benson Park in Omaha a few miles from our home, put down the checked oilcloth tablecloth and heat up a grill. Family gatherings on my dad’s side oftentimes would be at parks in Iowa. Adults would sit and talk as the food cooked, with countless covered dishes spread across the table. The cousins would run wild and check out whatever playground equipment was at the park, or if there was a lake into which we could dip our toes.

Other than large family gatherings these days, I don’t think a lot of people in this area go to the “bother” of packing a picnic for just a couple or for only a few diners these days. It’s easier to just eat inside where it’s air conditioned, or close by on the patio or deck. But when it’s a small group of picknickers, you can’t help but engage in conversation and relax (Turn off the cellphones!). And there are no waiters hurrying you and handing you a check. You also know who prepared the food.

I hope you can enjoy at least one picnic this summer. Where’s your favorite spot to picnic around here? What do you like to bring that’s out of the ordinary?

I still laugh a little when I think of comedian Conan O’Brien strolling into the Edwardsville Dairy Queen on May 17 and ordering a banana split. I can just imagine the workers’ double-takes. I mean, no one else looks like him! There could be no mistake.

O’Brien, who takes over as host of the Tonight Show on June 1, reportedly was gracious and posed for pictures with the employees.

While celebrities have been known to stop or visit in the Edwardsville-Glen Carbon area, residents usually know the famous people they spot have family or professional reasons for being there. Because of that, their sitings are not quite such a surprise. From time to time, I’ve heard of former baseball Cardinal star Mark McGwire being seen, but he’s married to a woman from Glen Carbon who still has family in the area. No surprise there. Another former Cardinal, Jason Isringhausen, also owns properties outside of Edwardsville. My daughter, the Cubs fan, catered an event at his home and said he was “nice and funny.” Actress Laurie Metcalf also visits family in Edwardsville, where she grew up and graduated from high school.

In June 2007, there was a film being made in Downtown Edwardsville. Among the cast was actor Tim Robbins. Anyone reading local papers at the time knew he was in town; what surprised some people was one night he joined in with the band at Laurie’s Place on Main Street and mingled with the “regular” people. That counts as a surprise.

But Conan O’Brien? That was totally unexpected.

A newspaper report says O’Brien had been in St. Louis briefly filming a segment at the Gateway Arch. It didn’t say why he ventured to the East side. The entourage reportedly arrived in a white van and stayed at the ice cream shop for about a half hour.

I don’t have any such sitings to report personally. I only saw Food Channel show host Alton Brown’s crew’s truck when he parked it across from The Telegraph when he was in town a couple years ago. I’ve seen broadcaster Mike Shannon at an Edwardsville grocery, years ago when he lived in town.

My son, though, got to chat with Cubs shortstop Ryan Theriot at a Taco Bell in Chicago. Theriot was nice to him and his friends, so I have silently thanked him at the two Cardinals-Cubs games I’ve attended this year when he’s strode up to bat. (A former New York Mets pitcher who also pitched for four other MLB teams was not so nice to him when he was a little boy seeking an autograph). That same daughter also found herself in a crowded restaurant near the Galleria by brief-Cardinal Cesar Isturus and his family, but only she, her boyfriend and wait staff appeared to recognize him.

So, does anyone out there have any unexpected, unplanned brushes with or glimpses of someone famous in the greater Alton area? (It doesn’t count if you tried stalking George Clooney when he was in St. Louis). Let us all know about it.

Mother’s Day came and went Sunday, a day most mothers relish because we reflect on how much we love our children and how proud we are of them. We think back to babyhood, the slobbery kisses and smiles that revealed only a tooth or two; and funny things they did as toddlers or as children that didn’t seem so humorous at the time. (It was so much fun to dump sugar on the floor! And to play “guess the spices” with your blindfolded brother!)

We remember games we played with them at home and later, their multitude of soccer, baseball and softball games we attended to support and cheer them on. And the countless band concerts.

The “terrible two” tantrums and stern calls from school are distant, nearly forgettable memories.

The special day also is a time for mothers to reflect on their own mothers. As we grow older, more and more of us have lost our mothers, so the day is bittersweet. We think of our children with warm thoughts; we think of our mothers that have left us with a sad tinge at least, and tearful sorrow at worst.

My mother died in 2007, eight days before Mother’s Day. Now the annual commemoration for me is both a celebration of all mothers combined with a near anniversary of my mother’s death.

This year I heard about some women who are using the day to honor their dead mothers by sending flowers to another mother, which I think is great. I read that one woman sends flowers to actress Florence Henderson every Mother’s Day because her own mother is dead. It makes both women happy.

A woman I know, who recently lost her grown child, discovered with delight that a former student of hers left a bouquet on her front door this Mother’s Day. It honored the recipient as a mother and cheered her on a day she probably dreaded. It also made the giver happy because she had someone to give flowers to on Mother’s Day, as her own mother is dead.

I think this is a wonderful idea.

If you no longer have a mother, you have a year to think about who you can honor next Mother’s Day with a card or flowers. It will cheer both of you.

After all, your mother raised you to think of others, didn’t she?