Thanksgiving Feed - Popcorn

I'm not sure where I came across this ad. Somehow it wound up in my chaff pile, waiting to be sorted, and I stumbled across it this morning while searching for food-related materials for the season of feasting that is Thanksgiving. I'd love to have one of these machines. Not sure where I'd put it, but the look of it is just amazing. It speaks of a time when popcorn was enough of a treat to be vended from a bubblegum-style machine at fairs and on boardwalks across the country. Simpler times, I guess. Then again I've come to realize that times never were as simple as we'd like to think. Especially when I'm guessing this ad comes from the era of the Great Depression and World War II.

Think you're at a railroad depot, waiting for the train to the coast and basic training before heading overseas to who-knows-where to face people who mean to murder you and everyone you love. You're surrounded by a thousand strangers, it's your first time away from home and may wind up being your last. A cold air blows through the station carrying with it the smell of popcorn and your mind goes back to the Grand Theater on Main Street, your best gal, and sneaking a cuddle while the Wolfman chewed the scenery and for a moment you're home and safe and there is no war, no hatred, and no looming shadow of death sitting on the bench beside you. Maybe that's a big part of what Thanksgiving's all about.

Indiana State Fair - 1946 Popcorn

This is Popcorn year at the Indiana State Fair, so what more appropriate image than that of a popcorn magnate handing out a prize at the fair? The tow-headed fellow on the right is John Coltrain, a farmer from Darlington, Indiana and he's being presented with an Angus heifer by none other than Mr. O. C. (Orville) Redenbacher of almost every kernel pops fame. At the time of this photo, Orville was a successful farmer and owner of Princeton Farms. Strange how history is written in circles!