Hey, Popcorn People!

Who doesn’t love that sound of pop…pop pop-pop popcorn popping while you prepare it on your stove top or in your air popper or microwave? It’s a wonderful, magical sound that signifies a treat is on its way! Today is National Popcorn Day which is a perfect day to prepare this interesting treat for yourself.

So before kitchen appliances were invented, people had never even heard of popcorn, right?

WAY WRONG! Actually, along with a man named Percy Spencer, popcorn played quite a role in the invention of the microwave! It was an easy food on which to experiment—and hardly new!

People have been enjoying popcorn for about 4000 years! How did they prepare it without the modern ease of electric appliances? Well, one ancient method was to throw sand into a fire and then to stir in popcorn kernels after the sand was fully heated. If you enjoy bits of sand all over your popcorn, this is the way to go.

Among all the other types of corn, popcorn is the only one that will actually pop! Why does it do this? Because, unlike any other kind of corn, the hull of popcorn has got the necessary amount of thickness that allows itself to burst open when under pounds and pounds of pressure.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s happening inside the kernel during the burst. First of all, there is a small drop of water that is stored at the center of each popcorn kernel. The drop of water is surrounded by the kernel’s soft starch. The starch is then covered with the kernel’s hard, outer shell.

As the kernel gets heated up, the water inside starts expanding. At about 215° the water inside the kernel has turned to steam which then turns the starch into a kind of hot, gooey substance. As the heat arrives at about 350° the pressure inside the kernel will hit its limit and the hull bursts open. The gooey starch puffs out as it cools immediately after growing 40 to 50 times the original size of the kernel!

Click here to see kernels popping in slow motion!

Now that you know how it pops, maybe you’ll appreciate popcorn even more. From everyone here at Everything Summer Camp, Happy Popcorn Day! Pop some tonight and get ready for April 7, Caramel Popcorn Day!

Hey, Curious Campers!

Ever wonder about the history of your camping gear? How long have people been using duffel bags to transport and store their belongings and various camping supplies? It’s a question that takes a good amount of consideration. After all, what qualifies as a duffel bag?

Perhaps to some people, a duffel bag need only be a bag for carrying what you never could with just your arms. In this case, any ol’ rucksack could be considered a duffel bag. Predecessor of both the backpack and the duffel bag, rucksacks have been around for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.

Early rucksacks were typically made using the skin of an animal or wool if it was around. These carrying bags were primarily used by hunters to carry back their prey. These bags were usually strong enough to carry a good load, however, they didn’t do anything to protect their contents in a rainstorm.

It wasn’t until the early 1600s that a new material was found to replace animal skins. It was sailors of the time from Spain and Portugal who stumbled upon this new material. They would sometimes need to make bags with what they had around. Using scraps of the fabric they used for their ship sails, they realized that this material provided perfect protection. Unlike animal skin, sail scraps were stiff and waterproof!

This sturdy material at the time was imported from its one supplier. This supplier was located in the town of Duffel, Belgium. So you can imagine where Duffel Bags get their name. So despite the fact that rucksacks are ancestors of Duffel Bags, you can’t really call Duffel Bags Duffel Bags until after the early 1600s when the bags got their name from their original supplier’s location.

We can assure you that the Duffel Bags that we offer here at Everything Summer Camp are authentic Duffel Bags, made without using any animal hide.

Hey, Hat Wearers!

Whether it’s a practical Winter Hat, Baseball Cap, a Party Hat, Cowboy Hat, Coonskin Cap, Beanie, Top Hat or Hard Hat, there’s almost no doubt that you’ve worn a hat in your life! Well, if you’re not already wearing one right now, I suggest you go pick one out for the day since today is none other than National Hat Day!

I myself am wearing a Chullo right now. That’s a hat with earflaps in case you were wondering.

I think one of the most interesting things about hats is that there are so many different kinds. I’ve mentioned nine different types of hats already in this post and that barely scratches the surface!

So how did hats get to be so popular and diverse. Well, we see hats being worn over five thousand years ago! The first sighting we have is from a tomb painting in Thebes which shows a man wearing a simple, straw hat. Other hats of the time were also simple skull caps until the Petasos came along and introduced the first brimmed hat. Hats at this time were articles mainly worn for special occasions.

It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that hats really became a marker of one’s social status, similar to the way that military officials wear certain types of hats dependent on the rank of their position. The Middle Ages also brought along a hat intended for women in the late 1500s.

As hats became just as much a thing for women as they were for men, the look of hats evolved and became more and more developed—elaborate even!—in the early 1800s, bonnets were born. They got fancier and fancier as their time went on with bigger brims, more ribbons, more flowers, more feathers, and trim!

It’s the middle of January. Chances are you already planned on wearing a hat if you haven’t already today (NOTE: more body heat escapes through your head than any other part of the body); but in any case, maybe you should put on something special to celebrate National Hat Day. Till next time, Hatters!

Hey, Animal Lovers!

Do you end up with an extra load of laundry every week? Do you have another closet that neither you nor your kids use? Who fits in a hoodie this small?! It must be those furry little critters that run around your house.

No—not mice! Your pets!

If you love to dress up your pets, then today is right up your alley! It’s National Dress Up Your Pet Day— founded by Celebrity Pet Lifestyle Expert and Animal Behaviorist, Colleen Paige in 2009. National Dress Up Your Pet Day is a great way to celebrate your pets and how much you love them.

You might think that dressing pets up in clothes is a relatively new “fad” (for lack of a better word). But on the contrary, people have been creating clothing for their animals for thousands of years! It wasn’t quite in the same way that we do it nowadays, but they did it nonetheless.

In order to protect their horses’ feet, the armies of ancient Greece would put leather boots over their hooves. In medieval times, the knights would often dress their horses during jousting matches or for battle. And even in the modern day, the police dress their horses in fluorescent covers. And the same goes for their canine unit too—WOOF!

The clothing that the police use for their animals along with the knights and the ancient Greek armies, is a little more practical than dressing up our lazily lounging, domesticated beasts. But dressing up your pet can actually serve a purpose yet. Some people’s pets have bad allergies, causing them to scratch incessantly. Clothing can help prevent them from causing further irritation while scratching. It can also provide some extra warmth on chilly winter days (which is why Dress Up Your Pet Day is in January).

One last note, Pet Dressers: All animals are different from one to the next. They may not enjoy wearing clothes. Make sure your pet wants to be wearing the clothes you put on them. Our pets shouldn’t have to be miserable just because we think it’s funny.

Hey, Dreamers!

Everyone has a dream that they’d like to pursue in life. Some people want to be firefighters, some want to be policemen. Other people want to be musicians or actors. Today is a day to recognize that dream and take steps towards realizing it. Today is National Make Your Dream Come True Day.

Anyone who’s already done it will tell you—following your dreams takes hard work, determination, patience, and more hard work. But that’s why our dreams are so important. Our dreams are never easy to fulfill as nothing important is. Take National Make Your Dream Come True Day as a gentle reminder and a golden opportunity to make some forward progress in realizing your dream.

Dreams will never come true unless you take the proper steps to turn them into a reality! Now that doesn’t mean you should be discouraged if your dreams have not yet come true—not in the least. It should give you the satisfaction of knowing that someday you will achieve your dreams.

Take myself for example. I knew when I was little that I wanted to be a writer. I wrote every day. I wrote every night. I went to school for writing both in high school and college, absorbing as much information as possible to be the best writer I could be. Now I get to talk to all you Everything Summer Camp Blog readers in the form of my written word!

When you take steps in the right direction, you’re bound to get where you’d like to be…eventually. Yes, following our dreams is no easy task. But no matter how difficult it is or how far away your dream seems from becoming a reality—stick with it! It’ll be worth it in the end because doing what makes you happy is ALWAYS going to make you happy!

Dream big and dream on, Dreamers! Thanks for reading.