TRUST kids to create new things. A six-year-old invented the T-Pak after her mom challenged her and her siblings to create something one rainy afternoon. Kelly Reinhart’s parents promised that whoever presented the best design would get a good prize: A proto-type of the invention.
The kid’s design was inspired by a cowboy’s gun holster. Her creation was a pouch strapped to the thigh to hold video games. Kelly’s parents were true to their word. The game holder was received well by other children. So after tweaking the design, Kelly’s parents got a patent in 1998.
Do you like to swim? Do you use swim flippers? Do you think it is a recent invention? Here’s the score: in the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin created the grandfather of all swim flippers today.
How about that popsicle you are licking? Popsicles are very young but in truth, they are old.
Frank Epperson was 11 years old when he toyed around his mom’s kitchen. I think she was not home or else she would have shooed him out of the room.
He placed fruit juice around vanilla ice cream, according to daysoftheyear. This was in 1905. The product was first called “epsicle” then later received other names: popsicle, dreamsicle and even ice drop.
A popular version has vanilla ice cream coated with orange flavored ice. There have since been many other flavors on the market. One national brand in the Philippines once came up with banana flavor popsicle with a yellow skin that you could peel off. It was a novel idea but I do not know whether kids realized that part of the fun was peeling off the jelly skin.
In whatever flavor and coating they come, popsicles are still here to stay. In fact, Aug. 14 is known as National Creamsicle Day.
Enjoy the day by making your own popsicles: Place fruit juice and fruit cubes in a paper cut and freeze. Halfway through freezing time, place popsicle stick in the center and pop back into the freezer. Alternately freeze milk mixed with cream and melted ice cream. Add any flavor you want and extras such as chocolate bits, nuts, raisins and berries. Place place in paper cups and freeze.