It makes everyone happy, just look at the people in the photo above, don't they look happy?
Well, it makes us happy and we eat a lot of popcorn, and that got us to thinking, how did popcorn become popcorn?
Popcorn dates back over 5,000 years ago.
Popcorn was originally grown in Mexico but it managed to find its way to India, China and Sumatra many years before European explorers arrived in North America.
Popcorn ears over 5,600 years old was found in a cave in New Mexico in 1948 and are the oldest ears of popcorn known.
Popcorn was popped by throwing it on blazing hot stones and presto, popcorn, going in all directions.
It became a game where the idea was to catch the popcorn and the prize was eating it.
Grains of popcorn over 1,000 years old have been discovered in Peru and the preservation methods of the Peruvian Indians was so advanced that 1,000 years later, this corn still pops.
The Indians of North and South America popped corn 2,000 years ago, Columbus wrote in his memoirs that Indians sold popcorn to his sailors.
Popcorn was very popular with Indian tribes of North and South America and when the Pilgrims arrived they brought popcorn to the first Thanksgiving.
Some of the first poppers were made of soapstone, pottery and metal and have been found in Indian excavation sites.
These poppers have legs and have lids and are set directly in the fire.
Some poppers have been found to be as large as eight feet across to for the extra large amounts.
The colonists loved popcorn so much they ate it for breakfast with sugar and cream for breakfast, this became the first puffed breakfast cereal.
Popcorn carts became quite the scene in 1885, with steam and gas poppers being used at fairs, carnivals and expositions.
Back in 1945 experiments with microwaves and popcorn took place and that is long before anyone really owned a microwave. And now, microwave popcorn pops up over $250 billion yearly sales.
