he St. Alpine Annual Picnic

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

There was nothing special about a summer picnic held on the first Saturday in July each year. The only unique thing about this picnic was that only Lilliland bachelors were invited to attend. The invitation to the young men had to come from a young, unmarried woman. It was considered a ladies' day event.

Some of the young men were so shy that they actually hid in the Alpine Mountains until the picnic was over.

It turned out that very few marriages resulted from the St. Alpine picnic, but everyone who attended seemed to enjoy meeting new people and had a good time.

Everyone in Lilliland firmly believed that marriage was a life-long commitment. The reason for this success in marriages was believed to be that the families arranged the marriages. The parents of both the man and woman would speak of the event for a very long time. Where the couple would live in the Lilliland community was also planned and there were usually very few unfortunate surprises to prevent the union. The young people often objected to the parents' planning of the wedding and they said they wanted to be free to marry anyone their own choice. If the couple ran away to another country, they often came back after suffering a failure in the relationship because they did not know what to expect. Often when children came along, they wouldn't know how to handle the responsibilities that this event brings. The support from two loving families can make light work of the most serious problem

The St. Alpine Annual Picnic is good fun but it is not a substitute for career and family-life planning with all parties involved, including all the brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins, too.