Washington, DC
Washington’s Cherry Blossoms: The Travel Writer Who Wouldn’t Stop Asking for Trees
Every spring, the Tidal Basin blushes all at once, pale petals drifting through the air like pink snow that forgot to be cold.
Today’s storyLake City, SC
The Challenger Astronaut and the Library Books He Wouldn’t Leave Without
The fuss began with a child who wanted to check out books. Not candy, not a toy, not some grand adventure—just library books, which somehow made the whole thing bigger. Ronald E.
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Onawa, IA
Eskimo Pie, and the Iowa teacher who listened to a boy with one nickel
Before it became something you reached for through a foggy freezer door, the Eskimo Pie started with a nickel, a candy counter, and one very reasonable child who refused to see why life had to be so…
Freeport, ME
L.L.Bean Boots: The First Big Order Mostly Came Back, and Leon Bean Refunded It
The boot that helped make L.L.Bean famous began with wet feet — and then, inconveniently, with the tops peeling away from the bottoms.
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Saipan, MP
Managaha Island Is Saipan’s Postcard Beach, but Its Sweetest Story Is the Chief Who Chose It as His Resting Place
On Managaha Island, the sand is bright enough to make you squint, and the water looks like someone polished it before the boats arrived.
Sturgis, SD
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Began as Pappy Hoel’s Nine-Rider Race—and Pearl’s Open Door
Before Sturgis became a roar you could feel in your ribs, it began at a size you could almost count on your fingers: nine racers, a small crowd, and a Black Hills town leaning in to see what would…
Honolulu, HI
Mele Kalikimaka: The Christmas Classic That Began With a Honolulu Office Question
A Christmas song can smell like plumeria if you let it. This one began not with sleigh bells or snow, but with a practical question in a Honolulu office.
Eielson Air Force Base, AK
Bob Ross’s Happy Little Trees, and the Alaska Sergeant Who Decided to Stop Yelling
Before Bob Ross tapped a brush against a canvas and whispered about “happy little trees,” he was in Alaska, where snow could swallow sound and the mountains looked big enough to make a person lower…
Monroeville, AL
To Kill a Mockingbird and the Christmas Note That Bought Harper Lee a Year
At Christmas, the gift that helped change American literature wasn’t wrapped like treasure. It was an envelope, small enough to hold in one hand, and large enough to give a tired writer back her…
Yigo, GU
Netflix's Operation Christmas Drop Has a Guam Ham-Radio Santa Behind the Airplanes
Out over the blue Pacific, Christmas sometimes arrives with a parachute and a thump, dropped from the back of a C-130 toward islands with no loading dock and no big-box store in sight.
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