Today, as you certainly know, is International Picnic Day, as well as Roger Ebert’s birthday (cheers, Roger) and the national holiday of the microscopic Republic of Seychelles, an island nation off the eastern coast of Africa (cheers, Seychelles). But don’t celebrate all in one place, for tomorrow is Garfield’s birthday, well-timed to coincide with World Sauntering Day. Yesterday was Stewart’s Root Beer Day, which I observed while observing National Bathroom Reading Month.
Which is also June.
Indeed, June, if I am counting right, is the home to five dozen or so observances, birthday celebrations, national awareness days, public-relations-constructed holidays and a pair of honest-to-goodness U.S. government-sanctioned holidays. The first is Flag Day, which was Sunday; Woodrow Wilson declared it a holiday in 1916, and it remains one of our more straightforward special days (salute a flag and you’re done). The second is Father’s Day, which is Sunday, and it’s a fine example of the thin line between actual holidays and contrived holidays: About 1910, it was organized by Spokane, Wash., churchgoers in response to Mother’s Day, promoted by men’s clothing lobbyists for decades but not made an official holiday until President Richard Nixon said it was in 1972.
I point this out because I’m feeling guilt-ridden about all the special months and days that come across my desk but stay unobserved. For instance, July 15 is National Tapioca Pudding Day. Someone once felt strongly enough to stake claim to National Tapioca Pudding Day, but who has the time to enjoy it anymore, what with it being so close to Barbershop Music Appreciation Day (July 13)?
So, earlier this month, I decided to see how many national observances in June I could observe within a week (paying no mind to whether my observance fell on the actual holiday). You know — to see what I’ve been missing.
The idea is contrived, I know — but then so is Log Cabin Day, a Michigan celebration, traditionally held the last Sunday in June. Of course the origins of some holidays are vague, their authenticity questionable — so in many cases, if it wasn’t recognized by the 52-year-old Chase’s Calendar of Events or “Brownielocks and the 3 Teddy Bears,” a decade-old Web site (brownielocks.com/month2.html) dedicated to holidays, I ignored it. Sorry, National Sunglasses Day.
Incidentally, don’t try this at home — not all at once. Individually, however, there’s a summer of stuff to do here.
I started by planting a perennial, to celebrate National Perennial Gardening Month — the traffic at Gethsemane Garden Center in Andersonville (5739 N. Clark St.; 773-878-5915) was so dense that police directed traffic. Back home, I alternated my digging with my celebrating of National Ice Tea Month, sipping a super rich, bright orange Thai iced tea from Everyday Thai Express (1509 W. Devon Ave.; 773-262-7797). I also simultaneously participated in National Weed Your Garden Day, which is June 13.
On the train, I honored Superman Week (second week in June) by reading the new comic-book confidential “Was Superman a Spy?” (Plume, $14) — did you know he “leaped tall buildings in a single bound” because his earliest animators thought flying was too pricey? (No joke.) Walking to work, I called my alderman to complain that the freshly refurbished tennis courts on Farwell Avenue in Rogers Park still do not have any nets up — which made for a disappointing National Tennis Month (May) but allowed me to play a small role in United Nations Public Service Day (June 23).
At work, I was notified of Goat Trauma Awareness Month, which sounded fishy, but I celebrated anyway: It’s the keen idea of Jennifer Loggans of Virginia, who wrote me that “everyone else was promoting awareness, so why not?” (Indeed. The issue, she added, is rooted in a real childhood petting zoo incident.) Exhausted from so much work, I drove to Logan Square for the silky chocolate milkshake at the fine lunch spot the Brown Sack (3706 W. Armitage Ave.; 773-661-0675), in recognition of National Dairy Month; then to Candyality (3425 Southport Ave.; 773-472-7800), where I had a handmade hunk of “Heaven,” a marshmallow coated with caramel, for National Candy Month.
The next morning, strung out on residual sugar, I hit the underrated Evanston Farmers Market, which is Saturdays, 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (at University Place and Oak Avenue) — to celebrate National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month. Feeling better, and driving south, I stopped at gorgeous Promontory Point, 55th Street and Lake Shore Drive; the breeze whipped across the peninsula as I read the last few pages of “Ulysses” and stretched out in the grass, beside an elm tree and barefoot — which served a triple purpose: June is Great Outdoors Month; June 1 is National Go Barefoot Day; and June 16 is Bloomsday, observed in Dublin to recognize the day “Ulysses” takes place.
That said, one can take only so much beauty, and come July, I wouldn’t be able to recognize National Soul Food Month or National Accordion Awareness Month. Thankfully, if you plan to celebrate, the South Side has you covered: I drove to Mississippi Rick’s (3351 S. King Drive; 312-791-0090), ordered rib tips to go, then drove over to the Italo-American Accordion Co. in Oak Lawn (5510 W. 95th St.; 708-422-2992) and talked accordions with the 83-year-old owner for a few minutes.
A perfect day.
Which got better.
Because June 5 is National Doughnut Day — a good excuse to make my annual trip to Dat Donut (8251 S. Cottage Grove Ave.; 773-723-1002), where I ate a Boston Creme doughnut (forgoing the infamous tire-size Big Dat doughnut) while ordering an Earth, Wind & Fire album off my iPhone (in honor of National Black Music Month).
Day 3 was a breeze.
I spent an hour watching beluga whales at the renovated Shedd Aquarium (1200 S. Lake Shore Drive; 312-939-2438), an ideal way to recognize National Zoo and Aquarium Month; then I took a picture of a dolphin (in sort-of recognition of Nature Photography Day, on June 15), while being forced to acknowledge that June is Children’s Awareness Month.
Which is a serious observance, created by the government to foster awareness of mental health issues. But it takes on a new meaning at a crowded aquarium. Likewise, National River Month — meant to celebrate our nation’s rivers — felt somewhat unfortunate, as my kayak hit a laundry detergent jug later that day on Salt Creek, a tributary of the Des Plaines River. That said, it’s a nice paddle for a fairly populated area: through Brezina Woods toward Brookfield, a trip that Chicago River, Canoe & Kayak (773-704-2663) is holding next month, July 26.
But I didn’t stop there: In one last drive, for Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday (June 8), I went to Oak Park and bought the new Lego Guggenheim Museum kit from the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Museum Shop (951 Chicago Ave.; 708-848-1606); then I had a light dinner of crab mac & cheese at Shula’s Steakhouse (301 E. North Water St.; 312-670-0788), to celebrate National Steakhouse Month.
“Happy National Steakhouse Month,” I told my server, who tilted his head the way a dog does with a strange noise.
That same night, in celebration of the Wicket World of Croquet Day (June 13), an annual event of the President Benjamin Harrison House in Indianapolis, I checked out the Chicago Croquet Club’s clubhouse (5800 S. Lake Shore Drive), which offers a pair of free, lighted croquet courts on Wednesday nights; ask them for a lesson and they will be delighted to walk you through a match.
Next day, I went to work. I wrote this story. It was 4 p.m. when I finished. So I left, in observance of National Leave the Office Early Day (June 2).
A busman’s holiday.
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cborrelli@tribune.com
