Lee's Musings: Popcorn, formatting, where's the sun? #mmromance #writestuff #caffeinateme

9/14/2016

Popcorn, formatting, where's the sun? #mmromance #writestuff #caffeinateme

Good morning all! *sips coffee* A little gloomy out this morning, but the sun has finally made an appearance. Which effort I greatly appreciate.

Last week I bought a box of popcorn. A LARGE box. Like twenty packets of microwave popcorn. You'd think we were opening a movie theater, that's how much popcorn is in our kitchen right now.

I didn't know why.

But as I sat here this morning, looking around the kitchen and trying to find distraction from formatting Taking the Dare for rerelease later this month, it hit me.

Popcorn is special food. (Yes, I am aware that it has been around forever.) Birthday cake special. Lasagne special.

Now, you have to remember, when I was a kid, #3 of 9, in the seventies, with a stay at home mom and an always at work dad, things weren't like they are now.

You couldn't just grab a packet and stick it in the microwave and be munching on buttery popcorn in minutes.

Nope. There was a special pan, and a crank that had to be turned constantly. And butter that had to be melted and drizzled exactly, so that all the popcorn was buttery, salty, but not soggy or mouth puckering.

The whole process was a stove top nightmare that took way longer than anyone wanted to wait. Because you see, we couldn't pause what we were watching. Or restart it. Or anything. And it wasn't on video of any kind, or available to rent, or stream. And it wasn't going to be on television again any time soon either. Movies played once or twice a year, if that. Some of them were annuals. You like Miracle on 34th Street? Great. You can watch it again next Christmas!

If you went to make popcorn, you were missing part of that movie. And sometimes, that movie was all that had gotten you through a crappy week.