During the summer, I received one of those special invitations that are hard to decline. I was asked to join a select group of seven bloggers from across North America for Cascade Blogger Day in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a member of the P&G mom team for the past two years, I couldn't think of a good enough reason to say no. I was home on summer vacation, my mother-in-law was available to watch the kids and I would be granted exclusive access to the P&G archives. But more than that, I would be able to speak directly to members of the P&G Research and Development team to ask them questions that have been hovering about in my head and gain a better insight into why there's a sticker on my dishwasher that recommends Cascade dishwasher detergent. Plus, it was the perfect excuse to  buy a new red tote bag at Guess. (What? It came with a free wallet.) So there I was, sporting my new handbag, admiring the views on board a Bombardier CRJ, and saying, "Good-bye, Toronto! Hello, Cincinnati!"

Shortly after our arrival, Kitchen Dish Council members checked in at the contemporary 21C Museum Hotel. We later met up with fellow bloggers and the Cascade team for dinner and a fun team-building activity at The Art of Entertaining which involved designing movie-inspired pizzas. The following morning, we boarded a shuttle to P&G headquarters which houses the P&G Heritage Archives. This was just one of the highlights of the trip for me because I got to learn about how it all began, with the P&G origin story.

Given Cincinnati's prosperous pork industry in the 19th century, it wasn't surprising to learn that tallow, a raw material, was available in large supply during that time. As an apprentice, James Gamble learned how to use tallow to make soap and candles from William Bell. At around the same time, William Procter was busy making candles as well. On the suggestion of their mutual father-in-law Alexander Norris, they went into business together and signed a partnership agreement in 1837. With the invention of electricity, the need for candles eventually dwindled and so P&G focused on the branding of their white soap, which was labeled Ivory Soap.

Little did they know that the science of soap-making would lead to so many different technologies that can be found in hundreds of products nearly two hundred years later. The main reason for our visit, however, was to learn about the history of Cascade which was first launched in 1955 with a pine scent, at which time 11 dishwasher manufacturers endorsed the brand.

After watching a series of old (I'm talking, really old) Cascade commercials, we were invited to browse the rest of the products on display. The one that left the biggest impression on me was this really, really old Gilette Khaki razor set from 1918. I had no idea that the U.S. Army enlisted P&G to make razor sets specifically for use by their soldiers. They wanted a hollow handle in which they could hide local currency, an inner lining behind which they could hide a folded map of silk and a magnetic razor blade that could be used to indicate true north by placing it on a leaf in a pool of water. Imagine that!