For generations, circuses have given the American public the chance to forget their troubles and be entertained by physical comedy, fantastic feats of derring do, and pure magic. And for more than a century, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has been synonymous with all three.

During a span of 50 years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the circus had only existed as the Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows. But in 1919, the Ringling Bros. circus merged with that of Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth. Created by the legendary showman Phineas Taylor Barnum and James Bailey, the merger occurred more than a decade after Barnum’s death. Much of today’s modern audiences were introduced to Barnum in the 2017 musical “The Greatest Showman, the title character famously portrayed by Hugh Jackman.

Earlier in his career, Barnum achieved notoriety as the creator of an immeasurable number of hoaxes to get people in his seats and their money in his pockets. Among his ludicrous claims – that one of his shows included an interview with George Washington’s 161-year-old former nurse. In reality, the 80-year-old woman was a blind and nearly completely paralyzed slave woman named Joyce Heth. When Heth died, Barnum charged onlookers a 50-cent admission to view her live autopsy.

Also part of Barnum’s circus was his “freak show,” a menagerie of human curiosities that included albinos, giants, exotic women, and little people, the most famous of whom, a young man with dwarfism named Charles Sherwood Stratton, was billed as “General Tom Thumb,” whom Barnum coached on performing in front of live audiences. Barnum took Stratton on a tour of Europe, where he met Britain’s Queen Victoria, and a tour of the U.S., where Stratton and his wife, a young lady named Lavinia who also had dwarfism, met President Abraham Lincoln at the White House.

From its beginning, Barnum and Bailey’s circus mesmerized audiences with a team of variety performers, acrobats, clowns, tigers, lions, and, at its center, “Jumbo,” who Barnum marketed as the world’s largest elephant. The circus traveled the world, surviving the Great Depression and by this time known for setting up its very own big tent at every tour site. The fun under the big top was affordable, too, a place of escapism to a Depression- and war-weary public.

After World War II ended and the 1940s gave way to the ‘50s, the circus came up against its greatest challenge so far – the advent of television. To keep the show’s expenses down as their audience numbers dwindled, circus executives abandoned the big-top tent that had become one of the show’s primary features, now moving their performances to indoor venues instead.

In 2024, July celebrates its 40th anniversary as National Ice Cream Month, so grab a spoon and enjoy a heaping scoop while I share a bit about its history.

July as National Ice Cream Month

President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month in 1984, while naming the third Sunday in July as National Ice Cream Day (so, this July 21, help yourself to that extra scoop of butter pecan). It makes sense that Reagan, himself a lover of sweets like the classic jellybean, would bestow this honor upon the month.

Locally, one of my favorite events associated with ice cream is the annual Vaile Mansion Strawberry Festival in Independence, MO, which occurs every June. Besides scrumptious strawberry ice cream being served to attendees, the festival also includes craft and antique booths, a classic car show, and baked strawberry treats. Still, it’s the strawberry ice cream that always seems to be a hit every year.

Using ice cream as the unifying element of a welcoming party or community gathering (as in an ice cream social) only makes sense, since it’s so universally beloved. The ice cream social can trace its roots back to 1744, before the birth of America itself. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to host an ice cream social in 1802 at the White House.

Like so many other items we take for granted in today’s world, ice cream was once a treat reserved only for the rich and influential. However, like those same items, it became easier to produce and thus more affordable and more available with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. It’s been a treat synonymous with summertime ever since – and we Americans delight in it, with the average American consuming about 20 pounds of it – that’s 4 gallons – each year.

The most popular ice cream flavor in the country

Proving that when it comes to sweets, Americans are largely traditionalists, a September 2023 article published on delish.com lists good ol’ vanilla as the most popular ice cream flavor in the country (President Jefferson is often credited as the first American to produce an ice cream recipe, actually). Chocolate takes the number two spot, with cookies ‘n’ cream at number three, and my favorite – strawberry – at number four.

Ice cream, of course, populates a special place in our memories of cherished summer days with loved ones. When I was little and my grandparents came to visit, my grandfather always took my brother and I to a small Dairy Queen store a few minutes away from home, where we’d lick vanilla cones while he would enjoy a banana split.

This month’s cover story relays the history of outhouses, those quiet but stinky outdoor private places where everyone did their business in the 19th century.

First, however, I’d like to fast-forward through time to the mid-20th century, a time when tackiness could be found in every room of one’s house, from aspic in the refrigerator to shag carpet in the living room. The bathroom wasn’t spared from trends on which we now can look back and laugh, either. Conversely, some of the bathroom trends with which you grew up are ones you may remember fondly.
Good or bad, here are a few trends you might recall:

Carpet: Like nearly everything made since the Industrial Revolution, as the volume of carpet produced rose, its price soon saw a dip. In the postwar era, carpet production boomed, and American families in the suburbs snatched it up as it became more affordable. Despite its new affordability, however, carpets seemed to convey luxury and comfort.

Sometime during the 1960s, wall-to-wall carpeting in one’s bathroom became a desirable option – heightened risk of mold growth be damned. By the 1970s, shag carpeting had made its way onto toilet lids and even toilet seats as well (I shudder with revulsion at the thought, don’t you?). The garish trend finally died out during the 1980s. And speaking of which:

Padded toilet seats:

Most sources seem to agree that David Harrison invented these in 1993, though I’ve always thought they were older. Maybe that’s because my grandparents had them in every bathroom of their house. I can still hear the pppfffttttt sound the seats made when I sat on them.

Colored toilet paper: Who wants to wipe their tuchus with boring white toilet paper when mint green toilet paper exists? It was one of a rainbow of pastel colors in which toilet paper was made. The 20-year period between the 1950s and the 1970s saw the use of toilet paper in colors such as pink, blue, green, brown, and another shade of brown. In the ‘70s, however, doctors warned of the dangers of the dyes found in these colorful rolls, and the paper was summarily flushed away, lost to time.

Everyone knows there are two types of people: Those who crave sugary snacks, and those who would prefer something salty instead.

I’ve always fallen into the latter category — bring on the sodium chloride! As a child, at the dinner table, I would try to heavily salt my food, only to be stopped by my parents (thank goodness!). Now, as an adult, I still love salt, but I’ve been successful in finding healthful alternatives to it when seasoning my food.

Our bodies need salt – all of us, both humans and animals. Salt has been used to bring out the flavor in our food for millennia – long before recorded history (it’s done wonders for what we drink, too – sprinkling a dash of salt in your mug of beer will decrease the bitter taste of an IPA). Of course, in addition to being edible, its story is sprinkled with fascinating factoids.

The first recorded mention of salt

The first recorded mention of salt can be traced back to 2700 BCE in China. Cultures the world over valued salt due to its scarcity. Before the advent of the refrigerator, rubbing salt into cuts of meat helped to preserve them aboard merchant ships during journeys overseas. The only rock that we eat, salt also was used as currency in the ancient world (‘salt,’ in fact, is the root of the word ‘salary’). Salt remained important to both our dishes and our economies, being used in everything from agriculture to the roads on which we walk. In the New World, Native Americans made salt from brine springs. Large-scale production of salt began during the Civil War.