National Towel Day was first celebrated May 25, 2001, just two weeks after the death of Douglas Adams, who wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Be on the lookout that day for fans of the book to be carrying a towel around or maybe sharing pictures of their folded animal towels in honor of the author.

We'll get back to Adams' fascination with towels (and the genesis of National Towel Day), but first the Central New York significance. Darman Manufacturing, located on Lincoln Avenue in Utica, according to its website, is "a proud woman owned business [combining] American manufacturing with precision engineering to bring you a product built to last."

Darman is the largest distributor of cloth towel cabinets used in the bathrooms of public and private businesses across the U.S. and Canada. Born in 1936, the company has evolved over the years from metal to plastic casing for its towels, and is now run by the fourth generation of the Darman family.

So, on May 25th, think Utica, especially if you're in a bathroom drying your hands on a cloth towel roll. And when it comes to the larger towels you use at home, think Douglas Adams. From his iconic Hitchhiker's book, tributes to the amazing power of the towel abound:

You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta...wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal...[or] wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal."

Happy National Towel Day to Douglas Adams fans and to Darman Manufacturing, the Mohawk Valley's sustainable towel experts.

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