Hey, Cookie Kids! 

Do you flip for the Chocolate Chip Cookies? Who doesn’t?! These appealing discs of dough and chips have magical powers that are sure to make your mouth water. Today is Chocolate Chip Cookie day—a day that’s sure to have you preheating the oven and mixing ingredients. Break out the flour, sugar, and—of course—the chocolate chips and let’s get bakin’! 

Easily the most popular of all the cookies, I’d be stunned to find anyone reading this Blog post who has never had one before. Can you imagine a world without the Chocolate Chip Cookie? Unfortunate as it may be, many folks have lived their whole lives without ever knowing the taste of this delectable treat! After all, the recipe was only created in the late 1930s. 

It was Ruth Wakefield, an experienced baker with a degree in household arts, who made the original Chocolate Chip Cookie. Ruth ran the reputable Toll House restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts where she first conceptualized this new cookie with melted chocolate chunks. 

She put out her ‘Tried and True’ cookbook in 1938 which introduced the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe to the world. The recipe blew up! Within a year, this cookie got so popular that it was mentioned on a radio program hosted by Betty Crocker. As if the cookie needed any help, this radio mention really did solidify this cookie’s reputation as a cultural smash! 

Many origin stories have been proposed for how Ruth came up with this cookie. Some have said it happened by chance when some chocolate fell into her cookie batter. Others suggested that chocolate was a quick replacement ingredient that just proved to be amazing. These are just stories, though. 

The truth is that Ruth was an absolute perfectionist when it came to her craft. She knew the art of baking very well. This iconic cookie was no happy accident! It’s the result of Ruth’s know-how for making a recipe and testing it carefully. Be sure to indulge for Chocolate Chip Cookie day and say a little thank you to Ruth for her incredible recipe! As always, thanks for reading! 

 

- John

Hey, Health Heads! 

Did you know that today is a double holiday? Two different celebrations rolled into one day. It is both Watermelon Day as well as Avocado Day! Two very summery treats also turn out to be very healthy foods. Both the watermelon and avocado are quite unsuspected but technically accurate members of the berry club! That’s right. They’re both technically berries. 

A surprising sidenote is that strawberries don’t actually qualify as berries. You can read more about that confusing matter on this previous Blog post containing some little known strawberry facts. 

We know full well that watermelons and avocadoes are somewhat iconic of the summer season. That’s why you can find these popping and cute prints depicting these delectable pieces of produce on select products here at Everything Summer Camp! 

Watermelons

That high contrast from the deep green of the rind to the pink with black polka dot seeds throughout is a head turning print that we love to dress one of our Designer Trunks. Of course, you can find watermelons elsewhere on our site like icons on nameplates and name labels along with our iScream Rhinestone Watermelon Decal! 

Avocados

The main ingredient of guacamole, avocados are a wonderfully versatile food. Avocado toast is one of my favorites in the morning! With so many lovers across the board, we figured we better put this trendy theme on a laundry bag! 

 

Dish up some avocados and watermelon slices for yourself today to celebrate BOTH Watermelon Day and Avocado Day! Enjoy these delicious foods and pick out some of our products that feature these foods! Have fun shopping our online site with plenty more fun products like these and, as always, thanks for reading. 

 

- John

Hey, Paperbackers! 

Do you find yourself often enough glued between the front and back of a soft, handheld novel? Today ought to be just your cup of tea! Find your favorite spot to read and plant your face in your favorite soft cover because today is Paperback Day! It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting under a shady tree or curled up in a nice, big chair—it’s what you’re reading that counts. After all, books offer a whole different world to which you can escape! 

Of course, you can’t curl up as comfortably with a hard cover book the same way you can with the casual portability of a paperback. And that means people didn’t know the joy of truly getting cozy with a good book until the paperback revolution came around in the 1950s. 

We have Allen Lane, a publisher in England to thank for this revolution. He used money out of his own pocket to launch the Penguin Books imprint in 1935. The softcover saw immediate success in the local area, but it didn’t take too long to sweep the world! 

Paperback popularity went through the roof in a very short period. They were cheap to produce and gave way to dime novels—a quickly produced book of typically low quality printing and writing. However, many paperbacks were simply reprints of their hard cover original. 

No matter what the content, softcover books shoehorned their way into places where a hardcover dared not go such as newspaper stands, drugstores, airports, hotel lobbies, etc. Books were now an item that people would buy on impulse! 

Softcover books are great to pack along for camp and any other summer travels you may have planned. Be sure to peruse our selection of Choose Your Own Adventure Books, the Camp Confidential Series, Mad Libs, as well as summer camp guidebooks, available right here at Everything Summer Camp and happy Paperback Day! As always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans. 

 

- John

Hey, Donut Devotees! 

Happy Donut Day! People love these morning-time treats so much that donuts have become more than just a mouth-watering dessert and transcended into something of a style. Their iconic shape lends immediate recognition and notability. Legend has it that it was one Captain Gregory who invented the donut hole when he spiked one on a spoke of his ship's wheel to free up his hands while he needed to steer. The truth of the donut hole is that cooks faster and more evenly this way. 

Regardless of how the hole got there, we know people like their donuts. While we doNUT have any actual donuts to sell, we DO have a handful of donut-themed products we carry! Check them out: 

Trunk
Don’t try taking a bite of this trunk, but you’ll enjoy being mesmerized by the seemingly endless piles of donuts upon donuts upon donuts! This Yummy Donuts Designer Trunk is a great way to tell everybody that you love donuts without saying you love donuts. 

Floor Mat
Start and end each day with donuts as you get in and out of bed and step onto our Donuts Floor Mat. Carry the look of your footlocker over to the Floor Mat and indulge yourself in your summer camp bunk area, creating a cool and comfortable spot! 

Pillows
Get cuddly with these seemingly cream covered, cozy pillows from iScream. Covered in a photorealistic image, it may be difficult for you to know where the donut stops and the pillow begins. Satisfy your cravings by keeping comfortable and enjoy these donut pillows from iScream! 

Do up Donut Day in style and grab some delicious dessert pillows to celebrate your donut love. As always, thanks for reading and happy camping! 

 

- John

 

Hey, Passengers! 

Today is Train Day! Trains are an exciting, old-fashioned means of travel, still used for transporting goods on a daily basis these days. Trains are enthralling—pulling hundreds of tons of weight right along at a fairly speedy clip. Some trains pull as much as 500 tons! The steam locomotive was first invented in 1804, but trains were around before that even. How were they powered? 

Horse Power
Before the steam locomotives, people actually attached horses to trains (they didn’t pull quite as much weight as trains do now, though!). The first steam engine hit 18 miles per house. On its first journey, the train riders came across owners of Stockton and Stokes, a stagecoach company who challenged the train to race one of their horses. The horse won after the locomotive ran out of juice. 

Turbo Beetle
The Black Beetle (the lesser known beetle from the 60’s) was a passenger train that was tested in New York City, 1966. Engineers were experimenting to see what speeds they could achieve so they to a jet engine from a bomber and threw it on the back of the Beetle. Its test run reached over 180 miles per hour, but they quickly scrapped the project as it was too expensive. 

Beetles VS Bullets
Just because they did away with The Black Beetle doesn’t mean further speeds weren’t achieved in years to come. Japan has The Shinkansen, or Japanese Bullet Train which gives its travelers an hour long ride from one side of the country to the other. How can that happen so quickly? Well, it travels at 200 miles per hour as the fastest train on Earth. 

There’s a train that goes by not even a block from my house and I love hearing it pass by. Enjoy any trains going by that you may encounter today. As always, thanks for reading and happy camping! 

 

- John