Hi, Camp Fans!

I scream…you scream…we ALL scream for—well, you know the rest. In fact, I think the entire WORLD knows the rest! Ice cream is more popular than television and it’s commonly coveted the world over. It’s pretty hard to find a soul that doesn’t melt right along with ice cream when enjoying a bite.

Everybody knows that we all scream for ice cream, but what KIND are we all screaming for? Well, we all have different tastes, but vanilla usually takes first place. Chocolate ice cream is an extremely close second, though. There’s even a day devoted to it—today is Chocolate Ice Cream Day.

It may take the backseat to vanilla with the popularity vote, but chocolate ice cream surely came around before vanilla became a flavor; it’s actually one of the first ice cream flavors to be created. So how was chocolate flavored ice cream discovered in the first place?

To answer this, we can actually go back to a previous Blog post I wrote about the history of Hot Cocoa in which I talked about the Mayan civilization who first discovered hot chocolate. They shared their drink with Aztec traders who were (many years later) conquered by Hernan Cortes and his Spanish army.

Cortes then took cocoa beans back to Spain with him and the drink of the Mayans exploded with popularity in Europe during the 17th century.

Hot chocolate quickly became a favorite, standing alongside other popular drinks like coffee and tea. Nearing the end of the 17th century, Italians started experimenting with frozen drinks as desserts. They first embarked with their favorite drinks—coffee, tea, and, yes, my friends, hot chocolate.

The day that this dark, delicious drink was frozen, chocolate flavored ice cream was born and became a fast favorite for everyone. It’s even thought to have a variety of medical uses thanks to its chocolate component. So enjoy some chocolate ice cream and think about how people started enjoying this dessert for the first time well over 300 years ago!

Thanks for reading, chocolate fans! Happy Chocolate Ice Cream Day.

- John

Hey, you Yo-Yos!

If you’ve mastered the art of ‘walking the dog’ or ‘skinning the cat’ then there’s a good chance that you already know, tomorrow is National Yo-Yo Day! Anybody can perform the predictable rise and fall of a yo-yo, but (as Gretchen Grundler learned in an episode of the classic Saturday morning cartoon, ‘Recess’) it takes true skill to learn ‘the secret of yo’.

One of the oldest toys in existence, the Yo-Yo has been around for thousands of years. It dates back all the way to 500 B.C. and maybe even before THAT! The ancient Greeks started making their yo-yos out of clay from the earth.

It seems like every kid of every generation has owned or at least held a yo-yo at some point in their life—it’s a pretty popular toy! In fact, the yo-yo has never been more popular than it is now. So how did a two-and-a-half-thousand-year-old toy maintain (as well as actually increase) its popularity over such a long span of time?

Well, it’s more recent history begins in 1915 by seeking out the origin of its name. See, the name yo-yo didn’t stem from the English language at all.

It’s actually the name it goes by in Tagalog, the language that they speak in the Philippines. When one Pedro Flores came to America from the Philippines, he was suddenly struck with the vision to mass-produce his favorite toy from back home and market it under its old familiar name. Before that, the western world called it a ‘bandalore’. No wonder it didn’t really catch on until after Mr. Flores.

Another big reason for the yo-yo’s success in more recent times is owed to an inventor and entrepreneur of the 1930s named Donald Duncan. This is the guy who, after buying out Pedro Flores, started the myth that yo-yos were once used as weapons. While yo-yos may be the furthest thing from a weapon, the people loved the idea of this tall tale and the yo-yo’s popularity skyrocketed.

We know better today than to think that this age-old toy was ever used as a weapon, but if you get really good you can amaze all your friends and family with the tricks you’ve learned. Yo-yo’s not about tricks, though. It’s about hard work and discipline—that’s how you come to find ‘the secret of yo’.

Enjoy National Yo-Yo- Day, yo-yoers! And as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Readers!

Standing alongside other national days to salute the defenders of our nation like Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day, today is Armed Forces Day—widely celebrated by honoring the people who serve our nation’s Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

Celebrated annually on the third Saturday in May, Armed Forces Day brings big parades and local gatherings, military displays in open public areas, airshows, as well as educational activities that teach children all about the armed forces.

Before Armed Forces Day existed, each ‘Armed Force’ had its own separate day. There was Army Day and Air Force Day, Navy Day and so on. It wasn’t until August 31, 1949 (the day my father turned two) when the United States’ Secretary of Defense joined all the separate military days to create Armed Forces Day.

The next year on May 20 of 1950, people nationwide celebrated the first Armed Forces. The idea behind Armed Forces Day is to celebrate the unification among all forces of the American military as they all act under one department of the government, the Department of Defense. “Teamed for Defense” was the theme for the first Armed Forces celebration which became quite a success.

Since its first celebration, Armed Forces Day has always heavily relied on public involvement; it was initially intended as a day to increase public awareness and understanding of the different types of positions that are held in the military forces as well as the part that the military plays in regular, everyday, noncombatant life.

From displaying cutting-edge equipment to hosting open houses, civilian life has always been the most important aspect about Armed Forces Day.

And so, on behalf of every civilian that works here at Everything Summer Camp, I’d like to say thank you to every single one of our nation’s Armed Forces for their service and protection to our country.

- John

Happy Mother’s Day!

Maybe I’m just a Mama’s Boy, but I think you’re all with me when I say that Mom’s pretty much the best person on Earth! Right? I mean, Dads are great too, but I think the bond and connection between mother and child is first and foremost—after all, Mom is the person who lugged you around for nine months before she even knew if you were cute or not (and she did most of it with a smile on her face)!

The whole concept of Mother’s Day seems so indispensable that one might assume the day has been celebrated since the dawn of time—But, as understandable as this notion is, this is not the case.

No, Mother’s Day finally saw its official beginning in 1914 despite the day’s history which goes way back before the Civil War! It’s thought to have started as a Christian celebration called “Mothering Sunday”. Although this celebration referred to the “Mother Church” that parishioners would attend on Mothering Sunday, it somehow evolved into a celebration for ACTUAL mothers!

Ann Reeves Jarvis played a key role in the day’s development as she started the “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” which taught local mothers proper childcare. She also started “Mother’s Friendship Day” in which mothers met peacefully with former soldiers of the Civil War after it had passed.

Other key roles in the evolution of Mother’s Day include Julia Howe. She wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” and also petitioned to make June 2 “Mother’s Peace Day”. And a woman named Juliet Blakely started a local Mother’s Day in the 1870s.

It took all the way until 1908 when the daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis, Anna Marie Jarvis set up her own Mother’s Day in tribute to her mother’s efforts with the Mother’s Day Work Clubs. When her holiday was a success after its first year, Jarvis spent the next six years lobbying to make Mother’s Day a national holiday.

It was President Woodrow Wilson who finally did something about it and announced the second Sunday in May National Mother’s Day, a thoughtful and considerate day to show our mothers our appreciation for them.

Make sure to let your mother know just what she means to you today. Thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Truth-Tellers!

National Honesty Day is tomorrow and that’s the truth. It’s a day in which everybody is expected to be truthful in everything they say and do. Everyone is expected to answer any question that they are asked with complete honesty. It’s one day out of the year when everyone is supposed to make honesty their highest policy.

This day hasn’t been around for a very long time (relatively speaking). It’s been around for a little over twenty years. It was a day invented by a man known as M. Hirsh Goldberg. His purpose behind the day was to give a little more balance to the month of April.

Since the first of the month, April Fools, encourages pranking and falsehoods, he thought maybe the last day of the month can be about honesty—something a little less immoral.

Telling the truth is important (especially on National Honesty Day, but really just all the time). The things you say and do reflect who you are as a person and how everybody else sees you. That’s why honesty means so much to people. When you tell the truth, you reflect the things that have actually happened and people see that in you.

Remaining an honest person feels good too because there isn’t any added weight of something else constantly on your mind—the fact that you need to keep up with what you have people believing happened even though it didn’t happen. Lying just crowds and clouds your life up. Lying is WORK!

Spread the word about National Honesty Day to all your friends and family so they all know to celebrate the truth along with you tomorrow. While I certainly enjoy the antics of April Fool’s Day, I also like the idea of bookmarking the month with the flip-side.

That’s all for today, Folks. Till next time.