Popcorn exile has finally ended

Finally — after a hiatus of nearly 30 years — the powers that be have entrusted us once again with the awesome responsibility of running the popcorn machine.
Not that we ever really had that responsibility in the first-place.
It would have been more accurate to label the two of us assistant popcorn technicians.
The trouble really started at an East Elementary School carnival the year before our first popcorn machine gig. Our now-grown twins were attending East, and as good parents we volunteered to help with the carnival.
Our assignment that first year was a game where kids tried to bounce ping-pong balls into little goldfish bowls. If a ball successfully landed in the bowl, the kid won a goldfish.
We thought we were doing a great job. Certainly the kids were having fun.
But apparently there were complaints.
Maybe too many parents found themselves taking home kids who were now the proud owners of a goldfish. Maybe we upset the budget by handing out too many winners. Maybe there were objections from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Goldfish.
Who knows?
At any rate, the next year my wife and I were reassigned. We were told that we would be running the popcorn concession, popping the corn and selling bags of it to kids.
But when we got to the carnival, we quickly learned that — in those days at least — the popcorn machine was the domain of Lloyd Wright, a volunteer firemen and heavy equipment operator from Salamonia.
Lloyd’s a great guy, but it’s clear we were interlopers on his turf. We could help with the selling. But when it came to the popping, he was the man in charge.
For some reason, the PTO never asked us back to help with the carnival after that.
My guess is they figured that if we couldn’t run the goldfish game properly and were simply in Lloyd’s way at the popcorn machine, we should probably stay home.
But our exile ended Saturday.
That’s because Arts Place — a little desperate for volunteers — contacted my wife and asked if she could work the concession stand at Hudson Family Park during a concert by the Lafayette-based group Miller. I was immediately drafted to help.
We arrived at 5:30 p.m. in advance of the 7 p.m. show and found nearly everything already set up by other volunteers. There were four coolers — Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite and Mountain Dew, and water — an assortment of candies and snacks, and — best of all — a popcorn machine.
The machine was a loaner from one of the local banks, prompting me to wonder how many years it has been since banks viewed popcorn machines as legitimate capital expenditures.
While it had a few years on it, that was okay; we’ve got a few years behind us as well.
By 6 p.m., we were popping our first batch of corn. There were a few glitches getting the machine to run smoothly, but before long we were popping like pros.
Connie did most of the popping, while I handled the money and made change for what turned out to be a pretty steady stream of customers.
I couldn’t help thinking that Lloyd would be proud of us, though I’m sure he would have offered some advice.
What I’m wondering now is whether they’ll have a goldfish game for us to run at the next concert.[[In-content Ad]]