Poping Up

Did you know they still sell popcorn that you have to pop in a pot? Jiffy Pop still exists also.

I haven’t bought any kind of popcorn except the microwave kind in probably 15 or so years. Popcorn that you pop in a pot makes me think of my father. Fond memories of daddy. When I was little daddy would make a huge pot of popcorn, then put it in a paper bag and put salt on it. We’d all sit and watch the weekly Disney movie and eat popcorn. He would also make popcorn for kid parties. I always wanted daddy to make Jiffy Pop so I could watch it expand (why else would kids want it?). He never would. I think I have watch Jiffy Pop pop 3 times in my life, one time at a friends house, one time I think with an aunt and I can’t remember the circumstances of the third time… so maybe I’m imagining it… or I was high or something… which means I probably did imagine it… anyway… I don’t like popcorn. Like every little kid I would eat it, but I don’t remember really LOVING it. When my mother remarried her new husband loved popcorn and had a popcorn popper (back in the early 80’s). I thought that was pretty damn cool. You could watch the popcorn pop! DAMN! But I still wasn’t totally into it. Well before long they were making it all the freaking time. Bleh. Every night *pop * *pop * *pop *. For years this obsession of theirs went on, popping and popping, melting butter and salting… bags and bags of popcorn. I actually got to where I hated the smell of popcorn. One day shortly after I finished high school one of my parents friends gave them an air popper * ooooooohhhhh aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh*. This I liked. This was a cool toy. Popcorn was still pretty vile to eat though. One of the first times making popcorn mom and I put too much popcorn in the popper. The popcorn overflowed all over the kitchen floor – it looked kind of like when you put the wrong kind of soap in the dishwasher and it pukes suds all over… except this was popcorn. My mother laughed as she watched my trying to catch the popcorn that the popper was spewing at me at an alarming rate. Her witch cackle attracted the others to come laugh at me being buried alive in popcorn. Uggh.

I escaped the Casa de Pop when I moved in with hubby a couple of years later. He likes popcorn, but not fanatically and he was quite happy with having microwave popcorn. I could tolerate the occasional bag of popcorn emitting noxious popcorn fumes for his sake. Ahhh… the things you do for love.

Last year sometime his brother gave us a gift bag with a bottle of popcorn in it – the kind you pop in a pot… this was part of a theme gift… with it came a carton of Whoppers (I’m all over that one!) and a gift card to Blockbuster. The Whoppers were gone within a matter of hours and the gift card was used that week – but the popcorn… it was a while before it was opened… and I’m not entirely sure WHY it was opened. We generally have a healthy supply of microwave popcorn on hand. A few months ago on a whim I made popcorn in a pot for the kids – I think I had promised them popcorn and when I got to the pantry realized that there was only one bag of microwave stuff left, so not wanting to deprive my husband I made popcorn for the little people. They were fascinated that it could be made on the stove top as well as the microwave. Today I made the last of the popcorn for the little people. The little people were thrilled… until they got to the bottom of the bowl. Hehehe… I guess I somehow passed along the popcorn loving gene.

I still want to make some Jiffy Pop….