It’s National Cherry Popsicle Day, so obviously, we have to tell the story of the popsicle, and the 11 year old you invented it.
He was Frank W. Epperson, and the story goes that when he was growing up in San Francisco, he was trying to cool off one day with some powdered soda mix and water in a cup.
But, being a kid, he didn’t clean up after himself at the end of the day.
The cup was still on the porch when he went to bed, and then it got cold enough at night to turn the soda water solid, with the stirring stick inside.
That was in 1905; he decided to start making and selling his creation to other kids in the neighborhood, and later making them for his own kids.
By 1923 Epperson decided to file a patent for what he called Ep-sicles.
His kids had other ideas; they called their pop’s frozen treats Popsicles, and that’s what they were called when they became popular in the 1920s.
Epperson ended up selling the patent in 1929 to a New York company, which created the twin pop, two popsicles in one for a nickel, which was a hit during the Great Depression.
But, then, pretty much every version of this treat has done well.
So if you have kids and some night they don’t clean up a thing they made before bed, you might want to see what happens in the morning before you get irritated about it.
Today in 1969, maybe my favorite live performance of all time.
Elvis Presley onstage in Las Vegas, deliberately fudges one of the lines to his hit “Are You Lonesome Tonight” to go “do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair?”
And then it’s said he sees a bald guy in the audience and just loses it, laughing his way through the rest of the song.
If you want to be in a good mood, check it out.
The Surprisingly Fun Story of How the Popsicle Was Invented by an 11-Year-Old Boy (My Modern Met)
Frank Epperson, 89, Inventor Of Popsicle, Dies in California (New York Times)
Elvis Can’t Stop Laughing (YouTube)
