Hey, Back to Schoolers!

You spend so much of your time preparing for the typical classes that kids have from grade school through to high school. You get folders, notebooks, binders, calculators, and all that sort of stuff for your academic education. But don’t go forgetting about the required, less academic physical education course your kid has.

Gym class is a vital part to our children’s education! And it generally doesn’t require any textbooks, notebooks, or folders. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t need any attention while you’re preparing for the coming school year. Your kid will need a change of clothes as well as a bag to carry them.

Lots of kids get duffel bags along with their footlockers for their summer camp stay, why not use the duffel bag for your change of clothes in gym class? Some of the duffel bags from Everything Summer Camp are probably too big to be reasonable options for a bag for gym class. The Go Big Duffel Bag, for instance, is probably a little overkill for what you actually need.

Our duffel bags from JanSport as well as High Sierra, on the other hand are perfectly good candidates for your gym clothes carriers.

The Pack N’ Go Duffel from High Sierra can be carried like a duffel bag or like a backpack. And it’s got an easy-access pocket for essentials and frequently needed items as it’s never a bad idea to have your own stick of deodorant around after gym class or a bottle of water.

You can also go with a classic, plain black duffel bag from JanSport. Made with wrap handles and shoulder straps, this duffel bag can be carried like a backpack too. And the small one (20″ x 12″ x 10.5″) boasts seven, convenient pockets on the outside.

So don’t rack your brain on it or stick your dirty gym clothes in your backpack—bring your summer camp duffel bag and make life easier.

Hey, Summer Lovers!

Happy Labor Day from all of us at Everything Summer Camp, your one stop shop for all your camping gear and camping supplies.

Back in May, I told you about the history of Memorial Day, how (though it’s actually meant to remember and honor not just the soldiers who died in the Civil War, but all soldiers who have fallen during their time in the service of the United States Military) nowadays, it’s usually thought of as a marker for beginning of the summer season—as opposed to Labor Day which marks its end.

Now that you know about the history of Memorial Day, today I’ll fill you in on the history of Labor Day and tell you why it’s so much more to celebrate than just the end of summer.

See, life in America was pretty different back in the 1800’s when the holiday first came to be. Going to work wasn’t the same, typical nine to five with the weekends off that it is today. Instead, people worked twelve hour shifts, seven days a week without any real rest except to eat and sleep.

Why did they work so hard? This much work was necessary just to keep America running in the 1800’s. First celebrated on a Tuesday, September 5, 1882 in New York, it wasn’t until three years after the first celebration that it became a nationally celebrated holiday.

We still don’t know who should get credit for Labor Day. Some say it was a general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters named Peter J McGuire while others think it was a different man named Matthew Maguire, a machinist of the International Association of Machinists.

In either case, Labor Day is now celebrated on the first Monday of September to remember and appreciate the contributions of the American workforce from more than 100 years ago that have led to our country’s power, prosperity, and well-being that we still see today.

Happy Labor Day, Folks!

- John

Hey, Camp Kids!

You know who went to summer camp when he was about your age? Kenneth Brian Edmonds—or, despite his 55 years of age, more commonly known as Babyface. There’s bound to be hundreds, thousands, millions, maybe billions of fans of this ten-time Grammy-winning, American R&B singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer.

The talented Mr. Edmonds, or Kenneth, went to CYO Camp Rancho Framasa in Brown County, Indiana for his summer camp days. CYO Camp Rancho Framasa boasts a beautiful bounty of land on the summer camp site. Kenneth spent his days at camp hiking the woods, appreciating nature, and having fun!

He had a pretty normal childhood. Brought up with five siblings (all of them brothers), he maintained a shyness in his youth for which his songwriting was a major source of emotional expression and quickly became a healthy outlet for him from an early age.

Tragically, when he was about fifteen, Kenneth and the rest of his brothers lost their father to lung cancer. With no one else to raise the six kids but their mother, Kenneth found the determination he needed to turn his simple means of self-expression into a musical career.

He played with other performers such as Bootsy Collins who was the one to give Kenneth his nickname, Babyface, for the “cute” boyish face that stayed with him through his teens. He also played guitar in the group Manchild and then became the keyboardist for a group that called themselves The Deele. Both groups were known rather well for the hits they had.

As Kenneth shaped his solo career, he has also produced and wrote lots of music for so many artists that I can’t actually list them all in this Blog post. To name just a few, there’s Carole King, Al Green, Beyoncé, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Michael Bolton, and Paula Abdul.

Most recently, Kenneth is working on a new album of duets with his longtime friend Toni Braxton. The album is supposed to come out some time this month.

Till next time, R&B buffs!

- John

Hey, Kids!

I’m sure you all have your own favorite desserts. After all, there’s a lot of them to consider: cake, pie, pudding, ice cream, brownies, cookies…The list goes on. But there’s only one dessert to have when you’re sitting around a summer camp campfire and I’m sure you all know what it is!

That’s right, S’mores. It’s America’s traditional treat! A sandwich of roasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate between two Graham Crackers. Short for “Some more,” this delicious dessert got its name because of what it makes you say after you eat it: “Mmm! I want s’more?”

A man named Alec Barnum is said to be the one who invented the s’more, though the dessert’s true history is somewhat of a mystery as its recipe appears in a book that was written by the Girl Scouts in 1927 called Trampling and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.

In my opinion, it probably happened a little something like this:

Alec, an amateur explorer, one day got lost in the woods with nothing on his person but a bag of marshmallows, some Graham Crackers, and a Hershey’s Bar. Desperate for warmth, he made a fire and—using what he had with him—made his dinner.

Once he stumbled upon this delicious dessert sandwich he couldn’t help but to eat “some more” and he fell asleep before finishing the last one he made. The next morning Alec was discovered by Girl Scouts while they were out hiking. They also discovered Alec’s newly invented dessert!

You can make your own variations to s’mores recipes. Some people add peanut butter, others add fruit; as long as you have the initial three flavors, you have a s’more. In fact, all the desserts I listed at the beginning of this post can be made s’more flavored—s’more cake, s’more pie, s’more pudding, s’more brownies, s’more ice cream, s’more cookies (I’m starting to feel like Bubba from Forrest Gump). You got s’more dip, s’more bars, s’more donuts, s’more rolls…that’s—that’s about it.

Since it is National S’mores Day, we’ve cooked up some of our own S’mores & had a little contest to see who in the office could make the best S’more! Check them out here: https://pinterest.com/everythingcamp/whats-happen-at-esc/

- John

Hey, Football Enthusiasts!

The other day I talked about Pinterest—a cool, easy-to-use Web site that’s a lot of help for planning football parties. Everyone here at Everything Summer Camp is pretty into football so we know how much fun it is getting together with friends to watch the game and what you expect from your football party planning!

Of course, the televised games of the NFL may not be the most important football games in your family. For those of you who have high school or peewee games to watch from the bleachers—then this blog post is for you. I’m going to give you some of the best advice you can use for these games.

If you haven’t already met, allow me to introduce you to Crazy Creek Camp Chairs. These chairs haven’t just revolutionized the comfort of camping, they make any occasion comfortable—wherever you go. Incredibly portable and lightweight, these chairs let you have a seat no matter where you are!

Let’s face it—football games are fun to watch, but people don’t want to sit on cold, uncomfortable bleachers for two or more hours at a time! You don’t want to miss out on a football game that means so much to your kid but you also don’t want to suffer through an eternity of cold seats and sore keisters.

There’s a handful of different types of Crazy Creek chairs you can use to bring a little comfort to camp or sporting events. You can find them at Everything Summer Camp—the Original Crazy Creek Chair, the Hex 2.0, the Everywhere Camp Chair, and Crazy Creek’s latest creation, the Air Chair Plus (a camp chair and also camp mattress).

So say goodbye to cold, uncomfortable bleachers and sore bottoms this football season and enjoy the games without sacrificing comfort!