Hey, Patriotic People!

The country celebrates and honors all its past presidents on this day as today is Presidents’ Day. However, this wasn’t always a day meant for celebrating our nation’s previous presidents. No, it was originally meant to celebrate just one of our presidents—the very first one we had, President George Washington.
That’s right. Today’s holiday was actually intended to celebrate Washington’s Birthday. In fact, Presidents’ Day is sometimes still referred to as ‘Washington’s Birthday’, though George Washington’s real birthday is on February 22 (it was moved to the third Monday in February so it would always land on a Monday). Since its move, its meaning changed as well, incorporating other presidents.  But because this day started with ol’ George, I thought I’d tell you some stuff you probably didn’t know about our first president.

1.) First of all, despite the fact that it WAS customary for a man of his stature to have graduated college (as all his contemporaries had), George did not continue his education after the age of 16. Instead his older brother taught him the trade of land surveying and mapmaking. This became George’s occupation before that whole president-thing came along.

2.) Lots of people think that George had wooden teeth, but his dentures were ACTUALLY made out of lead, ivory, gold, and some animal teeth. George ended up losing a lot of his own teeth in his early 20’s due to poor dental hygiene. Take it from ol’ George, kids. If you don’t brush ‘em, you won’t get to keep ‘em.

3.) Did you know that George Washington did not want to be president? He was elected for presidency and, despite the fact that he had support for a THIRD term, it was he who made the decision to step down and let somebody else do the job. It was then set in order that presidents could only serve a maximum of two terms.

So, I hope I taught you at least a thing or two about our nation’s first president today. Happy Presidents’ Day and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Puzzle People!

Today is the perfect day to bust out the puzzles and start separating the frame pieces—it’s National Puzzle Day! A great way to pass the time on a chilly day in January, people LOVE jigsaw puzzles. Strengthening visual acuity as well as pattern recognition, puzzles are advantageous in more than one way. They were originally designed as educational tools, actually.

First made in the 1760’s by a mapmaker from London, named John Spilsbury, one day he put one of his maps up on a sheet of hardwood and cut out the countries. Spilsbury immediately recognized the usefulness this could have for means of education. It didn’t take schools very long to catch on to the genius of teaching children their geography by having them put together puzzles.

I still remember learning my states and capitals with a simple puzzle-map of the United States. Somehow, placing the position of a state myself really locked its location in my memory. It was a great method by which to learn geography.

Jigsaw puzzles stayed true to their original purpose for nearly 60 years. It wasn’t until sometime around the 1820’s that puzzles started breaking free of their educational shell, and by the 1880’s, a different style of jigsaw puzzles arrived on the market. Up until this point, most puzzles were made on plywood with the image glued or painted on the front and the pencil tracings (to show where to cut) on the back.

The late 1800’s brought about a jigsaw puzzle that was constructed from cardboard—pretty much what we all think of when we think of a jigsaw puzzle. However, despite its eventual success, manufacturers predicted that wooden puzzles weren’t budging from their place on top and that customers wouldn’t want something as cheap as a cardboard puzzle.

Of course, the cardboard puzzles only sold for 25¢ while the wooden ones sold for $1.00 and, back in the days of The Great Depression, people were looking to spend as little as possible. Cardboard or not, puzzles offered inexpensive hours and hours of entertainment.

They still do today, which is all the more reason to get one out now! Happy Puzzle Day, Everyone. As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, you Squirrely Camp Fans!

Coinciding with the underlying moral of Tolkien stories like ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ evolution has shown us that big things can come in small packages. Though you won’t find them carrying magical rings through Middle-Earth, squirrels are definitely small packages and may earn more of your respect than you might expect.

See, despite the fact that squirrels are typically garden-ruining, birdseed-eating, car accident-causing rodents, we likely owe our entire existence to these little guys. That’s why today we’re celebrating Squirrel Appreciation Day.

There’s a lot to appreciate about squirrels, but their diversity alone is impressive enough. They come in all different colors like grey, red, brown, and sand. Albino squirrels have white fur as a result of their albinism while other squirrels are jet black as a result of melanism (the opposite of albinism). Some are black with white spots and others are a reddish-brown with black spots. There are all kinds.

Did you know there are over 200 different species of squirrels the world over? From tree squirrels to ground squirrels, fox squirrels, grey squirrels, FLYING squirrels (which don’t actually FLY), and many, many more, squirrels have obviously been around for quite some time in order to have developed so many differences.

Squirrels have been around for a very long time, indeed, and longer than we had ever guessed! A recent fossil-discovery, however, proves that squirrel-like animals lived in China 200 million years ago which dates mammals about 50 million years older than what scientists had previously thought!

These ancient creatures found in China are likely the ancestors of the squirrels that we know and love today! But what’s even more thought-provoking than that is the likelihood that if it wasn’t for these little guys surviving the brutal elements of prehistoric nature better than the dinosaurs were able to, you and I wouldn’t even be here!

You can learn more about these ancient squirrel ancestors here. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Readers!

Since you have the day off from school, I’m sure most of you already know what today is: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. So much more than just a day off, though, today is a perfect day to educate one another about the powerful teachings and philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.

King was born in 1929 to a teacher and Baptist minister. Born and raised, King attended school from grade school to high school to college, all in his hometown of Atlanta. He entered into his freshmen year at Morehouse College around 1945. This is when he was introduced to the writings of Henry David Thoreau—namely his ‘Essay on Civil Disobedience’.

King became very captivated with an idea presented in Thoreau’s essay—that idea: fighting back by not fighting at all. Thoreau’s essay discusses one’s refusal to follow along with an evil system as being resistance enough. Finding this idea so strong, King branded violent confrontation as “both impractical and immoral.”

At this point, King was still unsure that ‘turning the other cheek’ would deliver the lasting effect that he wanted. Was nonviolence a powerful-enough approach to making social change? Seeking to further his knowledge and understanding of nonviolent resistance, King looked into the life and writings of Mohandas Gandhi. After his reading, King was reassured that his nonviolent approach would create results.

At 25, King became a minister. It was around this time that he started making changes to things he didn’t like. His first focus became the segregated Montgomery buses. These buses said that African Americans could not sit with Caucasians. So King boycotted these buses and got lots of others to boycott the buses along with him.

This only sparked the beginning of the changes King would come to make. Learn more about the man’s life on our MLK Blog post from last year. And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

We’ve talked about the history of a lot of different things on this Blog, but my favorite subjects are the histories behind camping gear. That’s why today, I’m talking about the history behind the magnetic compass. Nobody really knows just how old the compass is, but that’s not to say that we don’t know much about its history. Check it out:

Before the compass was truly invented, the discovery of magnetism was already a popular fascination. It was William Gilbert (physician to Queen Elizabeth I in the early 1600’s) who first began to form the basic laws of magnetism. It was he who first speculated that the earth itself generates magnetism. 

Not to take credit away from Mr. Gilbert, but his theory of earth’s magnetism was written all over the place. After all, it was already common knowledge that magnets were made from magnetic rock called magnetite which occurs NATURALLY. The ancient Chinese were well aware of magnetite.

Chinese fortune tellers used the natural magnet, magnetite, to build their fortune-telling boards; they would use a piece of magnetite stone that would mysteriously shift, supposedly offering predictions for someone’s future. For a long time there was nothing but mysticism attached to magnetite’s behavior, but, eventually, it was seen for what it truly is: magnetism.

Linking this magnetism to a practical means of navigation, the invention of the compass was realized in China and made popular by the 3rd Century. Now perfected, the compass is a simple, lightweight device featuring a magnetized needle that sits on a free-rotating pivot to always show you which direction you’re facing.

Pick out your own magnetic compass from Everything Summer Camp and never lose your way again! As always, thanks for reading!

- John