Hey, Ball Fans!

Who can resist America’s favorite pastime—Baseball?! It’s come quite a long way from hitting a ball with a stick in an alley. Baseball today is far from your great-grandfather’s baseball. Instead of an unorganized activity for fun after school, it’s become the Major Leagues, Homeruns, Stadium Hot Dogs, and Bob Uecker. This is the story of the World Series and how it got be the way it is now.

Way back when—and when I say way back, I’m talking 1870’s—there was only one league: the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (who soon changed their name to the National League). They were the top dogs until 1882 when a second major league was formed—the American Association.

Up until that point the championship simply went to the team with the best record at the end of the season. But with the American Association now in the picture, the two leagues decided to face each other in a series of games to see who would win the championship.

These championship series are essentially what evolved into the World Series, however, they weren’t nearly as organized or official as the World Series we know today. Some series only lasted three games. Others lasted fifteen. And some even ended in ties!

The games were advertised as “The Championship of the United States” or the “World’s Championship Series,” which birthed the shorthand “World’s Series.” Up until 1930, people considered Baseball’s Championships to have started in 1884 near the rise of the American Association; however, nowadays the World Series isn’t considered to have started until 1903.

Last year, the San Francisco Giants took the World Series after defeating the Detroit Tigers. Who will take the Series this year is anyone’s guess. Keep watching and remember to root, root, root for the home team! Till next time, Ball Fans!

Hey, Farley Fans!

Who doesn’t love this king of comedy? Chris Farley will forever be remembered in our hearts and in our laughs as one of those one-of-a-kind kinds of people who could easily tap into that lighter, brighter, and funnier side of life.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Chris grew up with four other siblings—Tom Jr., Kevin, John, and Barbara Farley. Growing up in his hometown, Chris went to a number of Catholic schools and is said to have always made it to Mass.

Chris had a close connection with his summer camp. He spent many of his summers as a camper himself, and then later as a camp counselor at Red Arrow Camp around Minocqua, Wisconsin. Even from an early age, Chris enjoyed making people laugh.

Chris went to college at Marquette University to study communications and theater. He graduated in 1986 and one year later, moved to Chicago. Chris had developed a passion for improvisational comedy—comedy skits that are unscripted and unrehearsed. He performed at the Ark Improv Theater in Madison, the Improv Olympic theater in Chicago and, eventually, Chicago’s Second City Theater.

It was during one of his performances at Chicago’s Second City Theater where Chris was discovered by a producer of the ever-so-popular sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live (SNL). Chris boomed with popularity in the coming years on the show as he resurrected characters of his own from Second City Theater for sketches on the show.

After SNL, Chris started making movies. Along with his best friend David Spade, Chris made such classics as Tommy Boy and Black Sheep.

Few people know that Chris was actually supposed to be the voice of the lovable ogre, Shrek. The story was pretty different than the one we’ve seen too. Chris had recorded 80 to 90% of the lines for the movie. Unfortunately, he died before being able to finish the movie. Mike Myers later stepped in to make Shrek after the script had been rewritten.Though his passing is a tragedy, he still has us laughing with his unique brand of comedy.

Hey, Cupcake!

If you didn’t already know, I’m happy to be the one to tell you about one of the nation’s best holidays! No, I’m not talking about Christmas or Halloween—I’m not even talking about Easter or Valentine’s Day. No, the holiday I’m thinking of is Chocolate Cupcake Day. And it just so happens to be tomorrow!

Why CHOCOLATE Cupcake Day? Because chocolate is the very best flavor cupcake you can make! We here at Everything Summer Camp feel like one day to celebrate this chocolaty holiday really just isn’t enough. And that’s why we’ve been celebrating Chocolate Cupcake Day all week long.

We’ll be sampling each other’s cupcakes and sharing our tasty recipes with all of you. I can almost taste them now! What a great sensation it is sinking your teeth into that unapologetically moist bite of explosively chocolate intensity. Is it any wonder that we have a national holiday to celebrate this dessert?

While the debate exists about how this dessert got its name—because they were originally baked in cups or because the recipe is measured out in cups—the most curious part about the name is that the dessert wasn’t always called a cupcake.

No, they were first called number cakes since the measurement of the ingredients weren’t hard to remember. That was back some time in the 1800’s, when people first started making them. They’ve really come a long way since then—haven’t they?

Nowadays, you’ll find delicious cupcakes in bakeries, coffee shops, or even on TV when you turn on the FoodNetwork! Cupcakes aren’t just tasty, cup-sized cakes with frosting anymore. They’ve become a sweet tasting treat that you can top with your own creativity. Decorate them to fit the theme for a party or simply for your own delight!

So enjoy baking, frosting, and then decorating your own masterpieces like we are this week. And happy Chocolate Cupcake Day, Everybody! Thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Lovers!

Do you love camping gear as much as we do? Today’s Blog post presents the second installment of our Everything Summer Camp “Employee Picks” in which individual employees talk about their favorite particular products that we offer right here at Everything Summer Camp.

You may recall a few months back in July when I posted about someone who always has his work cut out for him around here. He’s our guy in the shipping/receiving department, Derek.

Not only does Derek bear enough of the duties that everyone else has in shipping, like picking, packing, and printing orders, but he also handles the majority of Everything Summer Camp’s incoming freight whether the shipments be stock items, equipment for all of our personalized products, or simply overhead for our office building.

Needless to say, Derek works with our products on a daily basis. What’s his favorite product from Everything Summer Camp?

Derek is a fan of the innovative Wheel Away System—a simple and discreet steel bracket on the bottom of your trunk that lets you pop your wheels on and off without any tools. These wheels handle rough terrain as well as stairs—so there’s no heavy lifting required to move your camp trunk after it’s loaded up and full!

“It makes it easier to move around and it installs with little effort,” says Derek. The Wheel Away System really is one of the easiest ways to convert your camp trunk into an easy-to-transport, storage unit/piece of furniture. The best part about the Wheel Away System—besides the easy transportation it provides—is its simplicity.

Once you pop your wheels into place, your footlocker is ready to roll within literal seconds. But—as the kids on Reading Rainbow always said—you don’t have to take my word for it!

Till next time, Camp Fans.

Hey there, History Buffs!

Happy Columbus Day, Everybody! If you’re reading this Blog post you must be pretty smart, so I’ll just go ahead and assume that you already know all the basic stuff about Christopher Columbus—you know, “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492” with the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria–not to mention, he most-likely took a footlocker or two with him on his travels.

But here are three things that I bet you didn’t know about Chris…

If That is his Real Name…

First of all, Christopher Columbus’ name is not actually Christopher Columbus. Actually no one knows what his real name really was. We call him Christopher Columbus after what we believe his original, Genoan name to be: Cristoforo Colombo. In Spain, his name is Cristóbal Colón. But the fact is, no one really knows what it was; one thing is for sure, though: his name was not Christopher Columbus.

Not Checking for Roundness

Contrary to popular belief, Christopher Columbus was not trying to prove that the earth was round. In fact, by 1492, most educated people knew that the world was a round spinning ball and not a flat disc, so there was no misnomer to correct. What Columbus was doing was looking for a shortcut to India. He thought that heading West might get you there quicker which is why he dubbed the Natives of the New World “Indians” when he first saw them.

And lastly,

Columbus Crashed

Well, he didn’t do it himself exactly, but he put the cabin boy in charge of the flagship who crashed it. It was Christmas Eve of 1492 when the Santa Maria was beached on a coral reef around the northern coast of present-day Haiti. The wreck cost Columbus the ship itself along with 40 crewmembers who Columbus was forced to leave behind.

So, History Buffs, you can wish people a Happy Cristoforo Colombo Day today and spread these little known facts about the “discoverer of the Americas.”

- John