The new year is still new, and we’ve been marking this new year in ways that, well, may not mean much to other people. What may seem trivial to others is deeply meaningful to me, and in this case, it is my beloved popcorn popper.

Sunday night popcorn has been a weekly tradition in my family since I was a kid. We don’t pass around the block of Velveeta cheese and a cheese slicer any more, but most Sunday evenings you’ll find us making popcorn and sitting down for a family nature show. They don’t make Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom anymore, but the replacements are fairly decent, even without Marlin Perkins.

With these years of popcorn experience, I can vouch for what I think is the ultimate home popcorn machine – the Stir Crazy. I’ve had my Stir Crazy for at least twenty years and the time has finally come to replace it.

The one on the right is the revered “old style,” and it has served me well despite having at least four replacement bowls over the years. They no longer make  bowls for the old style, so when the latest bowl (a modified “new style”) cracked, it was time to replace the Made In the USA version with the current Made in China version. I don’t want to turn this into a diatribe on protectionism, but I sure do miss the way things used to be made. I must be getting old….

So it’s on to the new for us. I shed a few tears pitching the old one into the trash, but it is nice to have a plug that isn’t worn and an easier-to-clean interior. However, I’ll always remember my first love. Farewell my friend.