Today I am in hog heaven because it is National Doughnut Day. Where else but America would we create a day for the exalted Doughnut? According to Wikipedia – “National Doughnut Day is on the first Friday of June each year, succeeding the Doughnut Day event created by The Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the women who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I.” According to doughnut history, in 1920 Adoph Levitt, a refugee from czarist Russia, invented the first doughnut machine. And by 1934, at the World’s Fair in Chicago, doughnuts were billed as “the hit food of the Century of Progress.” Legend says that dunking doughnuts first became a trend when actress Mae Murray accidentally dropped a doughnut in her coffee one day at Lindy’s Deli on Broadway. In the 1934 film It Happened One Night newspaperman Clark Gable teaches young runaway heiress Claudette Colbert how to dunk. In 1937 a popular song proclaimed that you can live on coffee and doughnuts if “you’re in love.”
What’s even better than celebrating the lard-fried, finger-licking, mouth-melting, doughy goodness? The fact that major franchises began giving out their calorie-laden, morning breakfast confections to the general public back in 2009. Today they are doing it again! Yes, you heard right. Stop by Krispy Kreme to receive a free doughnut, no purchase necessary. (I’ve provided the link so you can locate the store closest to you and drive there now!) No Krispy Kreme? No worries, you can swing into your local Dunkin’ Donuts and get a free doughnut with purchase of a drink. If you don’t have either one of these two shops in your area, check your neighborhood doughnut peddlers to see if they are participating in the madness. Aren’t you excited? I am.
My love affair with the doughnut goes back to the time of childhood, when every so often my father would make a doughnut run on Sunday morning to the local Winchell’s, and come home with a dozen assorted kinds – crème filled, jelly filled, bear claws, chocolate sprinkled with coconut, pink frosted sprinkled, powder-sugar, the list goes on and on. (Pardon me, while I wipe the drool off my keyboard.) It didn’t matter what kind, I wasn’t picky. I’d stand in my pajamas, at the front door, hopping from foot to foot as I waited impatiently for the yumminess to arrive. Attacking my father as he came through the front door, I’d snatch the bag and race into the kitchen to place the marvelous O’s on the table. My adoration for doughnuts could be comparable to the level of Homer Simpson’s.
The affair continues today and my love of doughnuts has been passed along to my children. Our donut of choice comes from Shopper’s Food. A local grocery store? That’s right. Not the doughnut shop. Our local grocery store supplies us with a treat they label the COLOSSAL DONUT. It is a drool-worthy lump of fat of epic proportions, and they are my family’s favorite brand. Homer Simpson would be in ecstasy and bypass his precious Lard Lad Donuts for the Colossal Donut. If you have a Shopper’s Food in your area I recommend you try one. (Not today. They aren’t free today. Go next weekend.)
Well, I could write more but-.it’s getting late… I must dash to my own Dunkin’ Donuts to get my free one before they run out! Happy Doughnut hunting.
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