Tailgate Picnic/Party (1961)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   I had previously posted 1962, which is what Merriam-Webster's 11th has.


   10 November 1961, TIMES-RECORDER (Zanesville, Ohio), section A, pg. 11,
col. 7:
_What's New In Dining?_
_It's The Tailgate Picnic_
   By Patricia McCormack
   NEW YORK (UPI)--The parking lot cookout--or tailgate party--is picking up
where the backyard barbecue left off.
  This new American dining custom occurs in parking lots near football
stadiums in many college towns on Saturdays.
   For a tailgate party you need a station wagon, food, ice, cool martinis,
people and a lot of unexpected happenings bordering on the hectic.
   The latter is what makes the tailgate party a kissin' cousin of the
backyard barbecue.
   Theoretically, friends meets, the tailgate is lowered, the food is spread
and the football fans quietly down a simple lunch before the game.
   Not long ago, the tailgate party was exxclusively a ritual in Ivy League
circles.  But it has spread.  Our family tailgated recently at the citadel of
rigid discipline, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. (...)