Hey, Summer Campers!

You’re not the only ones who enjoy the time spent at summer camp. Today, I’ve got another Celebrity at Camp to tell you about. It’s the host of his own Late Night Show himself, Conan O’ Brien. That’s right—the great Conan himself was a summer camper just like you long before he was hosting the Late Night Show on NBC.

Conan attended Cragged Mountain Farm in New Hampshire for his summer camp days. There he discovered the great outdoors and a healthy lifestyle. Summer campers really find out what it means to be roughin’ it on this adventure. Cell phones, computers, television—they’re all disallowed at Cragged Mountain!

You might call the O’ Brien family well-to-do. Conan was born in Brooklyn, Massachusetts to his father, a physician as well as Harvard professor of medicine, and his mother, a reputable attorney. Far from an only child, Conan was the third kid out of six kids.

In high school, he worked as the managing editor of the school newspaper; but it wasn’t until his senior year that he really proved himself as a writer when he won the National Council of Teachers of English writing contest for a short story of his. He graduated in 1981, the valedictorian of his class.

Conan went on then to attend Harvard where he focused on literature and history. He wrote his college thesis about the symbolism of children in pieces of literature in the writings of authors, William Faulkner and Flannery O’ Connor. After college, he went on to write for popular TV shows like The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live.

It was in 1993 that NBC gave Conan the opportunity to temporarily take over for David Letterman. Though he was basically unknown by the public, the show’s audience grew. Conan enjoyed the experience so much that he went on to create his own late show.

Summer camp sure seemed to do Conan some good. What will it do for you? Thanks for reading, Folks!

Hey, Groundhog Dayers!

Hey, Groundhog Dayers!

As you may have heard at least a couple times today, today is Groundhog Day, so get used to things happening happening with double the pleasure and double the fun! Let me repeat that: double the pleasure and DOUBLE the fun! Happy Groundhog Day, Everybody!

For anyone familiar with the classic film, Groundhog Day, you’re already aware of a portion of the day’s history. The movie revolves around this holiday in which Punxsutawney Phil, a Pennsylvanian groundhog (also known as a woodchuck) comes out of his hole to see if he casts a shadow or not. If he does, it means six more weeks of wintry weather. If not, then he predicts an early spring.

Bill Murray also finds himself in a seemingly endless, inescapable loop of reliving the same day over and over again. But that’s a whole different story. Bill Murray also finds himself in a seemingly endless, inescapable loop of reliving the same day over and over again. But that’s a whole different story.

In any case, to get to the bottom of this holiday you have to go way back. The tradition of Groundhog Day officially started 127 years ago in 1887. Local newspaper editor Clymer Freas is credited with the creation of our current celebration.

However, this 127-year-old piece of history is just the tip of the Groundhog Day iceberg.

See, there’s actually something rather meaningful about the date of Groundhog Day, February 2. It’s the halfway point between the winter solstice (shortest day of the year) and the spring equinox (when day and night are equal length). Thus, this date (with or without groundhogs) has been celebrated for thousands of years as a show of our anticipation for spring.

Originally a Pagan celebration, Christianity turned it into Candlemas. A sunny Candlemas predicted 40 more days of chilly winter weather, or so the Christians believed. It wasn’t until the Germans put their spin on the holiday, claiming that a day was only sunny if a badger could see its own shadow. Immigrants from Germany brought this tradition along with them when they settled in Pennsylvania.

But the native groundhog (also known as a woodchuck) became the new forecaster. Happy Groundhog Day, Everybody!

Hey, Curious Campers!

We carry some pretty amazing flashlights here at Everything Summer Camp. We’ve got various, hands-free headlamps. The Hybrid Solar Flashlight is able to keep its charge for years. And the Odyssey 6 in 1 is a flashlight that’s also a WATER BOTTLE!

So why don’t all flashlights come with some cool kind of gimmick? Well, all of our cool, gimmicky flashlights are the newest flashlights on the market. The technology is just coming along that we can actually make things from such weird, wild ideas as your water bottle being your flashlight!

In fact, when the flashlight was first invented in 1898, you were lucky if it worked at all. They required two D cell batteries which had become commercially available only two years prior. This early on, batteries were very weak. The light that they created was so draining on the batteries so quickly that the light would only come on in quick flashes before dying out.

That’s why people started calling them flashlights. It was a much catchier name than the original “Electrical Hand Torch” that the American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company gave it. (Although Americans and Canadians are alone on that thought as the rest of the world refers to them simply as “torches”).

Flashlights may not have worked very well when they first came out, but it was still plenty safer than walking with a candle or a lantern—no risk of causing a fire. It was, believe it or not, more reliable too as the wind could not blow it out.

Technology never stops improving. This was true back then the same as it is today and batteries got a little better over some time. Soon they were able to stay on for whole minutes. Then after some more time and improvements in battery life, they could shine for hours. But their nickname, flashlight, stuck with them.

Have fun checking out all of our cool flashlights at Everything Summer Camp!

Hey, You Crazy Kazoos!

I’m sure everybody reading this is well-versed with the art of the Kazoo. After all, it isn’t the hardest instrument to master. If you can hum Mary Had a Little Lamb, you can surely play it on the Kazoo too! If, on the off chance that you never before learned to play the Kazoo, what better day is there to learn than today—National Kazoo Day!

It’s real easy. Just put the wide end of the Kazoo to your lips and hum—don’t blow—into it. The vibrations you cause from humming travel through the Kazoo and through the resonator, the circular piece that juts out the top of the Kazoo. This is what amplifies your hum and makes that buzz.

And now that you know how to play it, there’s still a lot you can learn about this peculiar instrument. For instance, how old is the Kazoo and where did it come from?

The history of the Kazoo goes all the way back to the 1840’s in Macon, Georgia. Invented by an American man named Alabama Vest, he had his idea made up by a German clock maker, Thaddeus Von Clegg. In 1912, when the strange instrument was discovered by a traveling salesman named Emil Sorg, he brought the idea of manufacturing these instruments to New York.

Emil Sorg created a partnership with a die maker named Michael McIntyre as well as the owner of a metal forming plant named Harry Richardson.

And so, in 1914 on Main Street in Eden, New York, Harry Richardson’s metal forming plant became the Original American Kazoo Company. It still stands today as North America’s exclusive metal kazoo factory. And they’re still manufacturing kazoos today in the exact same way that they were manufactured back then! This factory is one of the last working museums in the world!

Like the Pet Rock, the Slinky, and Beanie Babies, the Kazoo caught on immediately and has become a classic piece of American history.

Click here to listen to our version of Camp Granada played on kazoos, you’ll have a good laugh!

Happy Kazoo Day, Kids!

- John

P.S. Don’t drive your parents too crazy!

Hey, Readers!

Are you crazy about chocolate cake? Go crazy! It’s Chocolate Cake Day. You’re certainly far from the only one.

Actually, people have been enjoying chocolate cake for thousands of years. Believe it or not, the ancient Egyptians were pretty good bakers. I imagine you may feel some astonishment to read that cake baking is an ancient practice—but it’s true.

You may also have a false picture in your head which is making it hard for you to see it. If you’re thinking of a round, two-layer cake cloaked in a beautiful coat of chocolaty frosting, then you’ve got the wrong idea. See cakes back then weren’t nearly the same as cakes that we know today.

When chocolate was first discovered by people, it caught on immediately. It quickly exceeded gold in value and different variations of chocolate beverages (hot chocolate, chocolate milk) became the popular drink. All that chocolate cake used to mean was simply a spice cake that you ate while enjoying a chocolate drink.

At that time nobody really knew how to bake with chocolate. It wasn’t until some time around the 1830s that people got the idea to use chocolate in the icing of a white or yellow cake. And so ‘chocolate cake’ came to suggest any kind of a white or yellow cake that had chocolate icing on it.

It was another 20 years before bakers finally discovered how to use chocolate as an actually baked ingredient in the cake. This practice still took some time before chocolate cakes started to look the way they do nowadays. After the turn of the century , the very beginning of the 1900s is when chocolate cake really started to look like the chocolate cake that we know today.

Happy Chocolate Cake Day, Everybody and thanks for reading!