Thursday, March 25, 2010

Pop'n People Eater

Here is another sweet score from the Ultimate Church Rummage Sale I went to a couple of weeks back

Cute 3 legged electric pot

I saw this on the Friday portion of the sale and thought it was just a neat old electric pot but decided it wasn't a "must have".   I figured it could wait till the Saturday bag-sale (fill a bag for 5 bucks, all items!) and if it was still there, and I still wanted it, I could get it for pennies.

On Saturday, I saw it again but still wasn't too interested in it.  By my third or fourth pass around the sale it was still there and I had just enough room my last bag for it.  I tossed it in and forgot about it until I got home and unpacked my loot.  Once I opened the lid, I found out what it really was...

Click for larger pick
...I found this info in the bottom of the pot.  It turns out it isn't just an ordinary electric pot, it is a vintage popcorn popper! I just love the vintage illustrations, and as you can see it was well used but someone had the old fashioned sensibility to save the booklet!

Here's the best part, my roommate loves popcorn.  She makes it several times a week and always uses a pot on the stove.  No microwave popcorn around here!  One night she announced she was gonna make a batch.  My ears perked up and I ran into the kitchen..."Can we make vintage popcorn?!?!" I asked, very excitedly and after I explained what I meant she said yes! She is the person attached to the hands in the following pics!


Step 1: Add the oil

Step2: Add the kernels
Action shot!

Step 3: Check to make sure heating element is on
Click for larger pic

Step 4: Let the vintage fun begin!  Leave pot on heat until only the "occasional pop" happens
We were so excited watching it pop!


Step 5: Reveal the fruit of your labors!

Step 6: Serve your Vintage Pop Corn in Vintage Bowls!  Enjoy!
 Om Nom Nom!

It was very delicious!  The funniest thing about the whole deal is that the convenience of this appliance for the modern housewife is shadowed by the inherent danger of it.  The thing is a bonafide fire hazard, not to mention threat to the general safety of your family.  The whole thing is aluminum and light as a feather, a stiff breeze could knock it over sending hot oil everywhere.  While you are emptying the popcorn from the pan, the nuclear-hot heating element if fully exposed, just waiting for the kids to grab it or have a bottle of Coca-Cola spill on it, making an electrical fire.  After all is said and done, it took ten minutes for the base to cool off enough to move it.  I guess that's just how people rolled back then! I would love to do an experiment/reality show where I'd have to live in a historically accurate mid-century household....at least for a little while.  I'm sure the novelty would wear off right away!  We are very lucky we can pick and choose what we want to be vintage these days!

P.S. Special thanks for to my roomie who is always a champ when I suggest something crazy!  
It was a blast!


9 comments:

  1. Oh wow looks like fun!

    I grew up in a 1950's house (the one I am in now!) and yes, I burned myself on stoves, hot irons, hot plates, and would get shocked if I touched both the stove and the fridge at the same time (the fridge was not "grounded").

    But back then, we simply learned by doing, or listened to our parents tell us not to touch certain things. If I cut my finger playing with my brothers metal dump truck with the sharp edges, I learned to be careful. =)

    P.S. I love LOVE the silver crushed ice formica you have. We used to have a table in the kitchen just like that. =D

    Oh P.P.S have you seen shows like "1940's House" and "Frontier House" on PBS? They do exactly that, have people live in particular eras... Or try to heh heh...

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  2. Seriously! Lessons learned the hard way are not soon forgotten! I have seen the 1940's house and the one about the Victorian manor, I super loved them both. Let's do a 50's 60's version already!

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  3. P.S.
    I have a chrome table of the same pattern. I owned the table before I moved into the apartment. When I saw the counters for the first time I thought OMG, this place was meant just for me! Later I found a stand alone cupboard with the same pattern and just a few weekends ago found a serving tray too! I always thought of it as crushed tinfoil but crushed ice sounds so much nicer! :-)

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  4. Oh very cool, Amber.

    Yes, let's have a 1950's house! lol...

    I guess I read it described as "crushed ice" so I thought that's what everyone called it lol...

    I remember our table vividly as a kid. It wound up on the back porch and finally the rain and weather got to it. We didn't think of those things as "cool" when we were kids no more than the stuff from the 1990's - 2000 is thought of as "cool" today. =)

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  5. I bet you could just head on over to the atomic ranch house with the pop corn popper and a camera crew and VIOLA! a vintage reality show is born!

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  6. Yipes, not my house, not yet! lol...

    New coat of paint going up on the living room as soon as I get the prep work done *groan*

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  7. I knew what that was the second I saw it. I could actually smell the popcorn. We had one just like that...and I never burned my fingers. We sure ate lots of popcorn (and not the low fat, low calorie kind).

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  8. Oh my gosh yes! haha trust me the "Atom Pop" is a fire hazzard too its "innovative cone shape" makes it easy for knocking over. and when the corn was done popping even with its innovative wooden handles it was still too hot to touch. as we sang its praises while we picked kernals out of the scalding pot I said "its all fun and games until sone one burns the Sh!t out of their hand when it touches the bowl..." lol Luckily no one was harmed.

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