June 6, 2013

Today we celebrate:

National Applesauce Cake Day – This is a cake that has applesauce as a main ingredient. It is very moist, and shouldn't need any oil. There was a time when I baked with applesauce instead of oil all the time, until I discovered that the fructose in apples was making my son sick. That's a pretty unusual food allergy, in most cases, apples are much healthier than oil to bake with.

D-Day – On this day in 1944, Allied troops invaded Normandy, France. More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft were involved and at the end of the day, our troops had a foothold in Normandy but the cost was great. They lost more than 9,000 soldiers on that day.

National Yo-Yo Day – This is believed to possibly be Donald Duncan Sr.'s birthday, maybe. Not real sure about that and it appears that no one else is either. Why is that important, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Yo-yo's have been around for well over two thousand years. In ancient Greece they were made from wood, or clay. In more recent times (1928), Pedro Flores began making yo-yo's to sell in California. Well, in 1929, Donald F. Duncan, felt that this new fad was going to go places and bought the Flores Yo-yo Corp. and registered the name Yo-yo as a trademark and really took off with it.

Drive-in Movie Day – There was a time when the Drive-in was THE place to go on a date. You could find one in almost any town. Nowadays, you'd be hard pressed to find one in every state. I happen to have one in my town, but that just makes me lucky. On this day in 1933, Richard Hollingshead's drive-in opened in New Jersey. His advertisement stated that “The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.” The first film they showed was called Wife Beware. The drive-in idea just took off from there and before long, they were everywhere.

To celebrate today, make some applesauce cake to share with the family later today. Then, read up on what happened on D-Day. Take your time because the drive-in doesn't open until dark. When it gets dark, grab your yo-yo and head to the drive-in to see whatever movie they have playing tonight. You can get out of your car and walk around if you want and play with your yo-yo while the movie is playing and you won't even bother anyone.