Greenwood made the first version better by adding bands instead of wires. Instead of flannel pads, he put in silk ones.
Chester Greenwood Day 2023: Every year on the first Saturday of December is Chester Greenwood Day, which is also called Earmuff Day. It’s on December 4 this year. Yes, that does happen every day! The town of Farmington in Maine honors a famous person who lived there every year. When Greenwood was 15, he came up with the idea for the earplugs. He thought of it so that his ears wouldn’t freeze while he was skating on the ice. The first earmuffs were made with some help from his grandma. They were made of loops of wire sewn together with fur balls. What happened next is history.
Chester Greenwood grew up in Maine, in the town of Farmington. Maine indeed gets cold in the winter, but the normal temperatures were a lot worse in the 1800s and 1900s. The ponds in the area would often freeze over. Greenwood, like all teens, loved winter and going ice skating with family and friends. Greenwood loved the sport, but he couldn’t spend too much time on the ice because his ears got frostbite more easily than other parts of his body. At that time, most people wore wool caps with ear covers to protect their ears. But Greenwood was allergic to wool caps, so they didn’t work for him.
Even though he was cold and had allergies, he didn’t give up. He chose to find a way out of this situation and told his grandma about it. Greenwood asked her to add cloth pads to the ends of a wire ring that could fit around his head. And that’s how the first pair of earmuffs came to be! His friends loved these little earplugs because they saw how clever they were in how simple they were. Soon, everyone in town had them on.
Greenwood made the first version better by adding bands instead of wires. Instead of flannel pads, he put in silk ones. There was also a spring in the new design that let you put more pressure on the ear. A long time after that, Greenwood opened a small plant in Maine to make earplugs. Since it started making earmuffs for troops in World War I, the plant gave people steady jobs and incomes for over 60 years. Even though Greenwood had tools for making things, she still hired women to sew velvet pads to the bands by hand at home. It was a way for him to thank his grandma, who made the first pair of earmuffs.
Go to Farmington, Maine
On Chester Greenwood Day, you can spend the day in Greenwood’s city. There will be music, craft fairs, and open houses that day. The show is the best part, so don’t miss it!
Skate on the ice
If you can’t be in Maine, hit the ice where you live and enjoy the cold weather. Don’t forget your earplugs!
Knit earplugs
If you don’t like being outside, stay inside and do some creating. Find how-to guides online to learn how to make stylish earmuffs. You can make earmuffs out of crochet, ear warmer caps, or things in the French Knit.
National Green Bean Casserole Day 2023: Date, History and 5 Interesting Facts
The place where the donut hole is
Captain Hansen Gregory of Maine found a way to fix donut cores that were too raw when he first poked a hole in hot dough.
The land of lobsters
Maine gives 90% of the lobster in the country.
Blueberry middle
Also, 99% of the blueberries grown in the U.S. come from Maine.
Not often named
Maine is the only state name in the US with only one word.
Maine gets the sun first.
It is the first state in the United States to see the sun rise.
The story is lovely.
Chester Greenwood’s story is a touching account of how small thoughts can grow into big things. It tells the story of Greenwood’s and the community’s growth over the years. We feel happy and warm just reading about it, like his earplugs do for ours.
Another reason to go outside
On Earmuff Day, you can go ice dancing! We should be thankful for anything that lets us go outside in the winter.
The party
Farmington’s parade has games, home-style cars, and a lot of other things going on. Everyone—and we mean everyone—wears earplugs!
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | December 4 | Saturday |
| 2022 | December 3 | Saturday |
| 2023 | December 2 | Saturday |
| 2024 | December 7 | Saturday |
| 2025 | December 6 | Saturday |
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