Tuscaloosa, AL
The Super Soaker began with an Alabama teenager and a robot named Linex
Before the Super Soaker drenched backyards, driveways, and unsuspecting uncles, it began with a homemade robot and a long bus ride across Alabama.
Today’s storyNashville, TN
The Grand Ole Opry’s Mother Church Began With a Heckler Who Changed His Mind
Nashville’s most beloved listening room began with a man walking into a tent ready to pick a fight. He came in with a chip on his shoulder and left with a building in his imagination.
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Pennsauken, NJ
The Drive-In Movie: The New Jersey Inventor Who Tested It with a Bedsheet and a Sprinkler
Before the drive-in became a summer night of popcorn, taillights, and kids in pajamas, it began with a lawn sprinkler. In a New Jersey driveway, Richard Milton Hollingshead Jr.
Lares, PR
“Feliz Navidad” Is the Christmas Song Everyone Knows; the Sweet Part Is Why José Feliciano Made It So Short
A few bright syllables, a guitar’s warm strum, and suddenly a room can feel like someone opened the oven door on Christmas cookies.
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Pawtucket, RI
Baseball’s Longest Game Had 19 Fans Left, and Pawtucket Turned Them Into Regulars
The lights at McCoy Stadium kept shining into Easter morning, long after the coffee had given up and most sensible people had gone home.
Cave Junction, OR
The View-Master and the Oregon Cave Trip That Began with a Funny-Looking Camera
Near the Oregon Caves, a vacation camera looked less like a camera than a small mechanical sandwich: two Kodak Bantams fastened together, ready to blink at the scenery in stereo. William B.
Cleveland, OH
A Christmas Story’s Leg Lamp, and the Bad Eye Exam That Lit Up a Cleveland House
The whole thing began with a lamp so silly it almost dared you to love it. A glowing “major award,” packed in a crate marked “FRAGILE” and forever pronounced “fra-gee-lay,” became the doorway to a…
Honolulu, HI
‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ and the 3 a.m. Honolulu chair that helped it happen
The song feels like it arrived on a breeze: a soft ʻukulele, a voice as warm as morning light, and that dreamy glide from “Over the Rainbow” into “What a Wonderful World.” But before any of that…
Wall, SD
Wall Drug's Famous Free Ice Water Began with Dorothy Hustead Listening to Cars Go By
The sound came first: cars humming past a little South Dakota town, tires whispering over hot highway, everyone headed somewhere else.
Burlington, VT
Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day Began as One Burlington Thank-You
The funny thing about one of America’s chunkiest ice creams is that one of its founders couldn’t smell much of anything.
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