Hey, Everything Summer Camp Fans!

Allow me to virtually introduce you to one of our production workers here at Everything Summer Camp. Teresa works with Shirley, the Production Supervisor. These two are experts at manufacturing C&N Footlockers. I’ve already told you about how much Shirley loves Lid Skinz. Today I’m talking about Teresa’s favorite product.

Teresa’s favorite product is the Exxel Outdoors Cub Youth Sleeping Bag. Curling up in the Cub is just the thing to keep the chill away on a cool night. It’s lightweight with two pounds of fill making it very easy to tote around. It’s comfortable on a 45° to 55° F night. With the Cub, you can camp out like you’re roughin’ it and sleep like you’re at home.

“My girl uses the Exxel Outdoors Cub Youth Sleeping Bag for all the sleepovers she goes to,” says Teresa. “Whether her and her friends just sprawl their sleeping bags out on the living room floor or decide to spend the night in the backyard, the Exxel Cub is able to provide the warmth she needs.”

Despite its resilience, The Exxel Outdoors Cub is also a very lightweight sleeping bag designed for young campers. With the Exxel Cub, campers can avoid getting too hot and carrying a bulky sleeping bag out on a trail. This sleeping bag also rolls up to squeeze into a compartment in your backpack for sleeping bags.

A simple sleeping bag, the Exxel Outdoors Cub is the perfect bag for any youthful camper. It’s made to stand up to lots of common camping abuse that it’s bound to see when taken out for a night under the stars. You don’t need to take Teresa’s word for it, though. Get it for your young camper and find out what she’s talking about!

Hey, Summer Campers!

Did you know that, like all of you, Denzel Washington too went to summer camp before he ever became the famous Denzel we all know and love? That’s right, Coach Herman Boone, himself (if you know him from the Disney film, Remember the Titans, that is) went to summer camp. He never was a camper, though.

Born in Mount Vernon, close to New York City, Denzel did not have the best upbringing due to location and troubles in his parent’s marriage. His parents broke up when he was 14. Consequently, his mother sent Denzel to a private preparatory school called Oakland 

Denzel has always since felt that attending that school caused a big change in his life and helped him to steer his life in the right direction. Denzel attended Texas College where he received a B.A. in Drama and Journalism. He also played in his college basketball team as a guard. Throughout his time in college, Denzel took up a job as a counselor for Camp Sloane YMCA.

Camp Sloane is a summer camp located in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains. Their chief goal for campers is to enlighten them in the principles of honesty, respect, responsibility, and caring for one another. Camp Sloane has been working its magic since 1928.

It was there that people first put the idea in Denzel’s head to pursue a career in acting when he played a part in a staff talent show put on for the campers. When his next fall semester started, he adjusted his focus and enrolled himself at the Lincoln Center campus where he studied acting.

From Shakespearean characters to box office thrillers, Denzel is one of those actors who can breathe life into any character! Summer camp gave Denzel the idea to pursue an acting career. What will it give you?

- John

Hey, Trivia Buffs!

No one really knows where National Trivia Day came from. People have been using the word “trivial” since the 15th century to refer to something of little or no importance. Since most trivia questions are quick bits of dry facts about petty knowledge of popular culture, the name is a good fit.

But it wasn’t until February 5 of 1965 that anyone had ever heard of a ‘trivia question’. Made popular by two students of Columbia University, Mr. Ed Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky. It was these two guys who created the first trivia contests. The earliest contests were challenges between colleges called quiz bowls.

Since its early years, trivia contests caught on like wildfire and the fun of trivia was realized all over the country. It took less than 20 years for Hasbro to jump on the trivia wagon and put out their infamous game Trivial Pursuit which has now become a classic choice for game nights and trivia aficionados.

Trivia contests have also increased in popularity for many restaurants and bars where friends enjoy grabbing a bite to eat or a couple drinks while racking their brains and straining their memory over topics that ultimately don’t matter.

So what can you do to celebrate Trivia Day? Celebrate Trivia Day by playing a heated game of Trivial Pursuit with your family and friends! You could eat out at a restaurant that hosts trivia contests. Or simply by impressing your friends and family with the little nuggets of knowledge that you know.

Here’s one to get you guys started: Did you know that Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street was actually orange in the first season. His explanation in the second season for his green appearance was that he fell asleep in a swamp and turned this new color overnight.

Happy Trivia Day to one and all!

Hey, Trunk Enthusiasts!

If you’re the proud owner of a C&N Footlocker from Everything Summer Camp, then your camp trunk isn’t any older than 27 years. In the big scheme of things that’s not very old at all, is it? But what about trunks in general—how long have people used trunks? The quick answer is around the medieval times.

But let’s delve into the subject a bit deeper than that, huh? Trunks weren’t made in America until the late 1600s. What was America like back then? Well, for starters, there were no phones, bathrooms, cars, supermarkets—HECK!—there wasn’t even running water or electricity! They were extremely different times than what we know today.

Back then, there was no Corelle company that sold fine dinnerware, nor was there an Everything Summer Camp where you could find quality-made camp trunks. The desire for such products, however, grew and grew during this time. Services like iron and coal mining, brick-making, glass-making, and, yes, even trunk-making became common means of trade and commerce.

Early trunks were made out of wood and covered with cowhide or some other animal skin. They were typically lined with old newspapers or some other printed paper.

But there certainly weren’t any summer camps around back then. So what did people use trunks for? Well, just as they’re used today, back then people used them for long periods away from home as well as decorative storage pieces. It didn’t take long for people to start experimenting with the way their trunks looked.

The late 1700s and early 1800s brought a richer and more ornamented style to trunks with iron locks and handles, leather trim, and brass tacks. A round top became a popular look around this time as well. But other styles came along too such as bevel-tops, barrel-tops, dome-tops, steamers, barrel-staves, wardrobes, dresser trunks, wall trunks, and more.

As trunk styles have changed all throughout history, Everything Summer Camp continues the tradition by keeping an experimental attitude toward the appearance of the trunks that we manufacture.

Hey, New Year Lads and Lasses!

Ready to ring in the new year for 2014? This holiday’s traditions are a little more self-explanatory than, say carving a pumpkin or keeping evergreens in our houses. The New Year’s tradition is to stay up late—until midnight—counting down the seconds to the start of the coming year. It’s pretty straightforward.

Traditions couldn’t have gotten too confused for such a simple holiday, right? Well, people have been celebrating New Years for the last 4000 years! That’s a long time to play the proverbial game of telephone from year to year, attempting to keep our traditions the same.

Surprisingly enough, it’s not so much our traditions that have changed over time for this holiday but rather the day of the holiday that’s changed over the last four millennia. That’s right, believe it or not, the new year was not always on January 1. Well, how can that be? you might be asking yourself. How can the new year change days?

Well, it’s not so much that the new year changed days so much as people started using different calendars (or even making up their own). The ancient Babylonians used to celebrate their New Year’s Day late in March around the vernal equinox.

The original Roman calendar only had 10 months and consisted of slightly over 300 days. But in the year 46 B.C., Julius Caeser first introduced his Julian calendar (which most resembles the Gregorian calendar, most commonly used in the modern day), he had to add 90 extra days just to make it all work.

In any case, whether people based their calendars off of earthly matters or the motion and arrangement of heavenly bodies, what’s important is that we continue to celebrate the passing of the old year and the coming of the new one.

From everyone at Everything Summer Camp, Happy New Year’s, Everybody!