Every Day Is Special: July 11 – Sundaes and Slurpees and Smiles, Oh My!

July 11 – Sundaes and Slurpees and Smiles, Oh My!

Posted on July 11, 2018

Today is supposed to be Make Your Own Sundae Day.

It's also Slurpee Day, in honor of the unofficial birthday of the 7-11 store chain. Apparently, if you bring your own cup, you can score a small free slurpee at a 7-11 today!

Every year, 7-11 has a new flavor for Slurpee Day; this year it is Red Dawn Monster Mutant. I bet it tastes a lot like the classic cherry flavor, but that's just a guess. By the way, you can have your freebie be any available flavor - it doesn't have to be the special featured flavor.

I personally would rather make my own sundae than drink a Slurpee. I love the creaminess of ice cream - ESPECIALLY when there is fudge and caramel and chocolate chunks and nuts involved!!!

Fun Facts

There are about 60,000 7-11 stores worldwide.

A lot of different cities lay claim to being the birthplace of the ice cream sundae. I cannot help thinking that such an obvious idea as topping ice cream with various yummy things has in fact been invented a LOT of times and a LOT of places.

The company that became 7-11 first opened in 1927, but it changed its name to 7-11 when it changed its hours to (you guessed it) 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. That change took place in 1946. Some stores are now open 24 hours, but the name is popular enough to keep even when it doesn't match the hours of operation.
There used to be "Blue Laws" against selling soda and ice cream sodas on Sunday, on the basis that it is a holy day - at least in Illinois. Some say that that's why an ice cream treat without soda was invented and given a name that sounds like "Sunday." However, historians and etymologists aren't sure this is correct.

Slurpees were first sold in 7-11 stores in 1965, under the name ICEEs. Nowadays ICEEs are sold in a lot of places (including movie theaters and convenience stores and amusement parks), and Slurpees are sold in 7-11s. But they are exactly the same thing! And they have a name that includes both ICEEs and Slurpees: they are both slushies!

Ice cream sundaes can be as varied as a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped by chocolate sauce, whipped cream, chopped peanuts, and a cherry...

...or a malted pretzel pie with 8 scoops of different flavors of ice cream, drenched with hot fudge and salted butter caramel, sprinkled with cookie dough, broken pretzels, Ritz crackers, M&Ms, chocolate and rainbow sprinkles, topped with whipped cream and a gummy cow...