{"id":1125,"date":"2016-07-31T01:06:41","date_gmt":"2016-07-31T01:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2016-07-31T01:06:41","modified_gmt":"2016-07-31T01:06:41","slug":"the-picnic-basket-of-god-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/2016\/07\/31\/the-picnic-basket-of-god-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE PICNIC BASKET OF GOD"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Shirley wakes up and puts her pink crushed velvet skirt and vest on. To complete her ensemble, she\u2019s wearing a bright yellow ribbed turtleneck. As she walks down the stairs she remembers that God is a flower. \u201cOkay kids! Today is picnic day so dress appropriately.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Chris runs into the living room so quick with excitement that he runs smack into the coffee table and flips into the air all the way over the couch. As he tries to catch his breath Tracy runs in yelling, \u201cIt\u2019s picnic day! It\u2019s picnic day!\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>In an hour they\u2019re finally on the road. After a couple of bathroom stops Shirley pulls the psychedelic painted bus to the side of the road. Keith looks out, \u201cHey, Mom. What gives? That\u2019s not a park.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Danny freckle-plants his face against the window. \u201cHey, uh Mom? That\u2019s a desert.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Shirley smiles and grabs the giant picnic basket. Laurie rolls out the red and white checkered picnic blanket as the others start to help Shirley with the tupperware and beverages. Soon they\u2019re sitting on the picnic blanket. Keith says, \u201cWow this is some good chicken! It\u2019s better than the Colonels.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Shirley gets up and slaps Keith in the face. As tears well up in his eyes she says, \u201cThat is the Colonels. Mr. Sanders made a special batch of chicken just for our picnic. I thought I taught you better Keith God Partridge.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Before Keith can protest Shirley grabs him by the neck and strangles him to death. Danny says, \u201cHey, Mom. Are you going through the change of life?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Shirley laughs, \u201cNo, Danny. I\u2019m not going through the change of life. But you are.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>And with that, she grabs a giant rock and caves Danny\u2019s forehead in. Blood and freckles fly everywhere. Laurie, Christopher and Tracy stare terrified. Before Laurie can say anything, Christopher and Tracy have pinned her on her back. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d the struggling Laurie cries out.<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Shirley smiles and then quickly with her sharp beige-colored fingernail, pokes Christopher and Tracy\u2019s eyeballs out. As they fall back, blood streaming from their sockets Shirley cheerfully says, \u201cOkay my little helpers, now just lay down and bleed out on the picnic blanket.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/13508977_1271594849517306_5494469130915190490_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1126\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/13508977_1271594849517306_5494469130915190490_n.jpg\" alt=\"13508977_1271594849517306_5494469130915190490_n\" width=\"780\" height=\"927\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/13508977_1271594849517306_5494469130915190490_n.jpg 780w, http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/13508977_1271594849517306_5494469130915190490_n-252x300.jpg 252w, http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/13508977_1271594849517306_5494469130915190490_n-768x913.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>She then turns her attention to Laurie. \u201cDo you know why you\u2019re still alive, Laurie?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>The orange keyboardist shakes her head slowly back and forth horrified. \u201cNo, Mom. Why?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>\u201cBecause I got a letter from your teacher and apparently you got an A+ in Science.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>And with that, Shirley jumps on Laurie and squeezes the life out of her just like she did with Keith.<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>As the Sun makes it\u2019s way across the Summer sky, Shirley humming so sweetly, buries her children in the desert. She then neatly packs away all of the picnic gear into the basket. She gets back into the bus and drives home. She turns on the lights, turns the TV on to Walter Cronkite and then disrobes. And with her left hand she rips her uterus out and drinks deeply from it. She sets it down on the coffee table.<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>The doorbell rings and Reuben Kincaid walks into the house. \u201cHey, Shirley! I\u2019ve got some great news. We\u2019re booked for an Autumn tour in Canada. Why don\u2019t you call the gang in.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Reuben then notices the uterus standing on the coffee table. \u201cAre you going through the change of life, Shirley?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>The next morning all of the kids come to the breakfast table. Shirley is frying the best sausage links in Albuquerque. Danny complains, \u201cDo you know how long it takes to get sand out of shoes?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Everyone laughs.<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>Parable by The Partridge in the Pear Tree<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shirley wakes up and puts her pink crushed velvet skirt and vest on. To complete her ensemble, she\u2019s wearing a bright yellow ribbed turtleneck. As she walks down the stairs she remembers that God is a flower. \u201cOkay kids! Today is picnic day so dress appropriately.\u201d Chris runs into the living room so quick with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shirley"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2wBFt-i9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1127,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions\/1127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepartridgefamilytemple.org\/albuquerque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}