Thread:61Storm/@comment-29709319-20190401001525/@comment-29709319-20190515025111

National Themes For May 15th: Peace Officers Memorial Day, National Chocolate Chip Day, and National Nylon Stocking Day.

👮👮‍♀️Peace Officers Memorial Day is a part of Police Week, paying tribute to local, State and Federal law enforcement officers. Every May 15 by proclamation of the President is Peace Officers Memorial Day. Flags are flown at half-staff in memory of those officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Services honoring the fallen will be conducted across the country, including Washington, D.C. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial wall in Washington, D.C. features the names of more than 19,000 law enforcement officers which have been killed in the line of duty. Peace Officers Memorial Day was created on October 1, 1961. At that time, Congress asked the president to designate May 15 as a day to honor peace officers. On October 1, 1962, John F. Kennedy signed the bill into law. In 1994, Bill Clinton made an amendment through Public Law 103-322 that directed the United States flag be flown at half-staff on May 15. In 1982, an annual Memorial Service gathering in Senate Park began and later became known as Police Week.

🍪National Chocolate Chip Day! In 1937, Ruth Graves Wakefield of Whitman Massachusetts, while working at the Toll House Inn added cut-up chunks of semi-sweet Nestle chocolate bar to a cookie recipe. The cookies were a huge success and in 1939 Wakefield signed an agreement with Nestle to add her recipe to the chocolate bar’s packaging. In exchange for the recipe, Wakefield received a lifetime supply of chocolate. The Nestle brand Toll House cookies were named for the Inn. Nestle initially included a small chopping tool with the chocolate bars. Starting in 1941, Nestle and other competitors started selling the chocolate in chip or morsel form. Semi-sweet was the original flavor of chocolate chips. Today the chocolates come in bittersweet, semi-sweet, mint, white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white and dark swirled. Today chocolate chips are used in a variety of baking methods from sweet to savory. Had Ruth Graves Wakefield never wondered what a few chopped up chunks of chocolate would be like in her baking, we wouldn’t even have chocolate chip cookies.

👠National Nylon Stocking Day! Many may not remember ever hearing the term “nylon stockings.” Varying in color, design, and transparency, a nylon stocking (also known as hose) is a close-fitting, variously elastic garment worn the same as socks or tights. Stockings worn before the 1890s were made of woven cloth such as cotton, linen, wool or silk. Before the 1920s, women’s stockings were worn for warmth. As hemlines of women’s dresses rose in the 1920s, women began to wear stockings over their exposed legs. These 1920s stockings were sheer, made first of silk or rayon, followed by nylon after 1940. Chemical company DuPont’s introduction of nylon in 1939 began a high demand for stockings in the United States. As nylon stockings were inexpensive, durable and shear. On February 11, 1942, as America entered World War II, DuPont ceased production of nylon stockings and switching their focus to the manufacture of parachutes, airplane cords and rope. This created a mass shortage followed by a black market for stockings. At the end of World War II, DuPont resumed production of the stockings but could not meet the demand leading to nylon riots in American stores. In time, DuPont was able to increase its output. In the 1940s and 1950s, the first pantyhose made its appearance. Film and theater productions had stockings sewn to the briefs of actresses and dancers, as seen in popular films such as Daddy Long Legs. Unlike stockings, pantyhose did not require a garter belt to hold the stockings up. Pantyhose were introduced in 1959, providing a convenient alternative to stockings which led to a decline in their sales. In 1970, for the first time, United States sales of pantyhose exceeded stocking sales and has remained the same ever since. In 1987, there was a slight decline in sales in pantyhose due to the newly invented hold-ups. However, they remain the most purchased kind of hosiery.

Thank you to all peace office for your service and sacrifice. Thank goodness for chocolate chips. Now I know the difference between stockings and pantyhose.

Warm hugs!🐶🐶💕⛅️