Hey, Football Fans!

Over the course of the last 50 years, the Super Bowl has taken the nation by storm! It certainly has become a leviathan of championship sporting events. Baseball may be America’s pastime, but football has quickly become the nation’s most popular sport.

Excited fans have been chomping at the bit in the post-season to see who will face off in this season’s Super Bowl. Now we know the Carolina Panthers are going up against the Denver Broncos today and the excitement is through the roof!

Super Bowl L (or 50 if you don’t know your roman numerals), is bound to be a record-setting televised event! Only seven shows in the history of television have been able to draw in over 100 million viewers: there was the M*A*S*H series finale in 1983 and the other six were all Super Bowls!

Today, the Super Bowl means a packed stadium, extravagant halftime shows, and funnier commercials than you’ve seen all year. But it may surprise you to know that the first Super Bowl was nothing like the Super Bowl that we all know and love today. No, it was VASTLY different…

Empty seats were plentiful, the halftime show was put on by marching bands and flag girls, and the game was broadcast (for the first and only time) by two different networks (CBS and NBC). It’s true! The Super Bowl just wasn’t nearly as big of a deal as it is now.

In fact, the original tapes of the game have been lost forever (recording live broadcasts was quite expensive back then, and so the networks recorded soap operas over their tapes)—that’s how small of a deal the Super Bowl was back in 1967!

With an old recording of the game having resurfaced in a dusty attic in Pennsylvania, the NFL has recently aired it as much of the game as we have (which doesn’t include the halftime show or bits of the third quarter). But it was the very first broadcast of this game in 50 years!

With this recent airing and today being Super Bowl Sunday, the frenzied Super Bowl excitement is more than it’s ever been before! Be sure you enjoy the game tonight and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, New Year Lads and Lasses!

New Years Eve Day is upon us and everyone is getting ready to ring in the new year! At 12 o’ clock tonight, we shake the dust of 2015 off our shoes and celebrate the arrival of 2016! At first glance, there isn’t much to explain about the New Years Eve tradition—stay up until midnight and countdown the hours, minutes, and seconds to the beginning of the coming year.

One might not expect such straightforward traditions to have changed much throughout the last 4000 years, however, that’s quite a long time to keep a tradition going exactly the same way that it had started. Things were bound to change a little, right?

Well, yes and no. See, the tradition of staying up until midnight has always been the New Years tradition. So if the tradition didn’t change, what did?

The date.

What?!! How can that be? How does the date of the new year get changed? Well, it’s not so much that the new year changed days as much as it was that people started using different calendars (and even making up their own). For instance, the ancient Babylonians used to celebrate their New Year’s Day late in March around the vernal equinox.

Originally, the Roman calendar only had 10 months and consisted of slightly over 300 days. But in the year 46 B.C., when Julius Caeser first introduced his Julian calendar (which most resembles the Gregorian calendar that we all know and love these days), he had to add 90 extra days just to make it all work!

But no matter whether people based their calendars off of earthly matters or the motion and arrangement of heavenly bodies, the important thing is that we continue to celebrate the passing of the old year and the coming of the new one with warm hearts and the company of those we love.

From Everything Summer Camp—Happy New Year’s, Everybody! And as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, you Monster Lovers! Happy Frankenstein Day!

What is Frankenstein Day?

Frankenstein Day is a day created to celebrate this iconic horror staple among spooky movies and scary stories shared around the campfire at summer camp.

Everybody knows about Frankenstein—or, at least, thinks they do. But this incredibly popular and iconic, ‘Halloween’ creature has been so warped by re-tellings and modern Halloween culture that everybody mislabels this monster.

The True Story Behind Frankenstein's Monster

‘Frankenstein’ is actually the name of the scientist who created the creature. The monster itself doesn’t technically have a name at all.

According to the original, classic tale, written by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, an advanced scientist, is mourning the death of his mother so much so that he studies how to overcome death itself. In an attempt to create a perfect being, the scientist creates a terrible monster that struggles with its cursed existence, haunting Victor to try and make his life right.

But this post isn’t about the story of Frankenstein. It’s about the story of the story of Frankenstein which began in the summer of 1816.

How the Story of Frankenstein Was Created

Mary, her fiancée, her step-sister, and a friend went to visit a mutual friend they all had in Switzerland, Lord Byron—a famous writer. With drab weather throughout their visit, the group was forced to stay indoors and they passed the time by reading German ghost stories.

After an evening of ghost stories, their host, Lord Byron suggested a writing contest in which everyone wrote their own scary story to see who could come up with the best one. Everyone jotted down a few ideas and went to bed to sleep on it. When Mary went to bed that night, she dreamed of a corpse that was brought back to life. And from that dream, she crafted the classic monster story ‘Frankenstein’.

Celebrate Frankenstein Day with Spooky Trunks!

Need a festive trunk for Frankenstein Day, Halloween, or any other spooky event? Look no further, at Everything Summer Camp we have multiple spooky trunk designs perfect for your storage scares!

The Monster Mash

Our tribute to Frankenstein, the Monster Mash trunk is a bit more cartoony than spooky, but still captures some of the monster's iconic features like scars, neck bolts, and green skin. Like Frankenstein himself, these trunks are practically indestructible!

The Creepshow Camp Trunk

One of our favorites, the creepshow camp trunk is guaranteed to catch you looking! With two ghoulish purple eyes on the front that seem to follow you wherever you go, this trunk design is packed full of scares.

The Zombie Graveyard Camp Trunk

When the graveyard comes alive it’s time to run and hide! Our graveyard camp trunk depicts the nightmare scenes of the dead coming back to life.

The trunk lid features a haunting full moon complete with bats and spiderwebs perfect for storing Halloween decorations and costumes year in and year out.

Zombie Attack Trunk

The zombie apocalypse will require storage, and what better trunk to prepare for it than our zombie attack camp trunk. This trunk helps you to practice steeling your nerves when a zombie is coming right at you, featuring a ghoulish undead figure on the trunk crawling out of graveyard.

Keep Your Frankenstein Day Spooky!

Happy Frankenstein Day campers, and happy haunting! Have a great day celebrating the power of a good old-fashioned spooky story.

And as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Fellow Patriots,

A country will have its share of joyous occasions along with its hardships and sorrows. Being involved and remembering those times is what being a patriot is all about. Not to be confused with Patriot’s Day—which celebrates a battle during the Revolutionary War—Patriot Day memorializes the loved ones we lost on that horribly tragic morning 14 years ago.  

On Patriot Day, we remember the horrible attacks our nation suffered on September 11, 2001 as well as the heroes who sacrificed themselves to save the lives of others. Having hijacked four, large passenger planes, the terrorists responsible for 9/11 crashed two into the Twin Towers and another into the Pentagon.

The passengers in the fourth plane managed to force their plane to crash into a field in Pennsylvania, preventing any further damage the terrorists would have otherwise caused.

Communities and individuals demonstrate their remembrance and patriotism in a number of different ways. Flags are flown at half-mast, bells are tolled, presidential speeches are given at the locations of crash sites. The most important and impressive part of the observance, however, takes place at Ground Zero in New York City where the Twin Towers once stood.

Another important, commemorative element at Ground Zero is the Tribute in Light, installed six months after the attacks. Two beams of light shine straight up into the air from the two reflecting pools, perfectly matching the footprints of the Twin Tower buildings. Inscribed in the bronze panels found around the outside of the pools is the name of everyone who died in the attacks.

Join the nation in our remembrance of this unfortunate anniversary. Thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Teddy Bear Lovers!

Among all the different kinds of stuffed animals you have or have owned in the past, a classic Teddy Bear was almost undoubtedly one of yours for everybody! Teddy Bears are everywhere. Everyone has one. We all love them! After all, we have a day for them; and that day is today. Grab your bear and enjoy today’s post together in honor of National Teddy Bear Day.

The Teddy Bear is named after the 26th president of the United States, Theodore (or, Teddy, as he hated being called) Roosevelt. President Roosevelt earned himself this endearing honor thanks to his compassion for a specific Black Bear. The bear had been brutalized and tied up by other hunters that Roosevelt was competing against. They tied the bear up for the president to shoot.

However, deeming the conduct in which this bear was treated unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt suggested somebody else shoot it to put the poor thing out of its misery. This hunting episode quickly became the subject of a political cartoon in ‘The Washington Post’.

When a man named Morris Michtom spotted the cartoon, he found inspiration to make the world’s first Teddy Bear. He made a cute, little bear cub and placed it in the shop window. The nearby sign read: ‘Teddy’s Bear’. He sent a bear to the president, asking permission to use his name. Roosevelt (despite his hatred for the name Teddy) agreed and the stuffed toys became an instant success!

Teddy Bears have certainly evolved over time. Originally, they were made to resemble real bears, sporting beady eyes and extended snouts. Modern Teddies have accentuated ‘cuteness’ with smaller noses and bigger eyes. A perfect day to go give your Teddy Bear a squeeze, enjoy National Teddy Bear Day and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John