Popcorn Wagon Update

Yesterday I posted the story of my grandmother's popcorn wagon in McMinnville, Oregon. When my sister and I were visiting as children, we'd often spend a few hours with her (Mom Jenkins), working in the popcorn wagon. Here are some recent photos of the beloved popcorn, all restored and residing in the McMinnville, Oregon fire department building:

When Grandma retired, the wagon was purchased by a museum in the capital city of Salem. But they eventually removed it from their collection and it was saved by the McMinnville Fire Department and has been displayed there ever since:

The door was at one end and the popcorn cooker at the other. You can see the cooker at the top of the photo. When the popcorn was done, that overhead "pot" dumped onto the steel tray beneath it. There, butter and salt were added. If I remember correctly, that tray was heated so the popcorn stayed hot until it was scooped up into bags:

This, I think, is a new sign, but it's an exact copy of the original. I know because I checked the old photos:

She also sold roasted peanuts. I can't remember if she roasted them right there in the wagon but I think so:

The popcorn wagon is now on permanent display in the McMinnville, Oregon fire station and brought out for field days and other special occasions:

My sister and I used to take turns accompanying our grandmother to the popcorn wagon when we were kids. There certainly wasn't much room inside, but there was a lot of love, both from Grandma and the customers, so it was a wonderful experience. And that's not to mention all the free popcorn, caramel corn, peanuts and Lifesavers:

Everything inside was shipshape, with a place for everything and everything in its place. Fresh popcorn was popped right there, but popcorn balls and caramel corn were made at home in the evenings:

The sign says "operated" by the McMinnville Volunteer Fire Department. Apparently they still use it to make popcorn for special events:

Our grandmother was a divorced woman with six children during rough economic times. She was an entrepreneur of the first order with her popcorn wagon and boarding house. She knew not only how to survive but to thrive. She lived to be 95. I come from sturdy roots:

The Popcorn Wagon

This is another post from the past, beginning with an old photo of the family's antique popcorn wagon:

Now, this is not just any old-time popcorn wagon. This is the one which was operated by my grandmother on a downtown street corner of McMinnville, Oregon for thirty years. This is the popcorn wagon from which my family received Christmas gifts every year of caramel corn and red and green popcorn balls. This is where my sister and I sometimes used to spend the day when we visited Oregon for the summer. This popcorn wagon has lots of memories for me and for my family. This photo was taken in 1955:

My grandmother, a divorced mother of six, supported her family by selling popcorn and by renting out apartments in her large, old Victorian home. It was a family business and in the evening, we might be expected to help out mixing up huge batches of caramel corn in the giant copper kettle (that's my sister on the stairway watching):

Because we only visited in the summertime, we never got to help make popcorn balls. But we certainly helped (well, we were young so perhaps I should say we watched, not helped) with the making of caramel corn. This is my mother in 1955, putting it into bags after it'd been spread out to cool:

My sister and I searched through all our old photo albums for photos and newspaper clippings. "Mom Jenkins Knows Her Corn" was a favorite sign in downtown McMinnville, Oregon for thirty years. This article was from the Oregon Journal in 1955:

And it became known widely across the state from human interest stories which appeared in many cities' newspapers. This was from the Oregon Statesman in 1964:

In 1966, my grandmother retired and sold her popcorn wagon:

It was loaded up and hauled to a museum in the State Capital of Salem, Oregon:

That's McMinnville's J.C. Penny store in the background. Just around the corner was the town's only movie theater. She made it a point to be making popcorn when the movie crowd was coming or going so that the aroma would draw them over to buy a bag of REAL popcorn (and she also roasted peanuts):

My mother, Viola, working the popcorn wagon somewhere in the 1938-1944 range:

I found this City Vendor's License from 1952 interesting, mostly because it cost forty dollars. That was a lot of money back then, especially for an elderly lady with a big family to support:

Eventually, the museum in Salem decided it no longer wanted to display the old popcorn wagon. Local civic groups in McMinnville rescued it and it is now displayed proudly in the City Fire Department Building. But I'll always remember it sitting next to J.C. Penny in downtown McMinnville, Oregon:

A Remarkable Woman Indeed

I posted some old photos of my mom on Facebook for Mother's Day and they drew enough attention that I thought I'd add a few more to the collection and present them here. Gladys Viola Jenkins, my mother, was a remarkable woman indeed. Born in 1924 on a hardscrabble farm in eastern Oregon, her family moved to the western Oregon town of McMinnville when she was a child:

The family was very poor, so much so that the local fire department brought them gifts at Christmas time. Her father held lots of jobs, including as a bronco buster and a street fish vendor. But her parents got divorced, a brave move in those days, and her mother began renting out rooms in their large house to help pay the bills. She also opened a popcorn wagon on the streets of McMinnville. It was close to the movie house so she could sell popcorn to theatergoers on their way into and out of the movie house:

 At nights, my mother helped make caramel corn and popcorn balls on the big kitchen table at home:

 And of course she took her turn selling popcorn in the wagon:

 She was a western gal through and through, comfortable with outhouses, campfires, wood cook stoves and horseback riding:

 She loved life and she loved God. She was a devout Christian all her life:

 She had two sisters and three brothers. They were a close, loving family all their lives:

 Her mother, my grandmother, saved up enough money to buy a log cabin up on a nearby mountain. We used to go there often when we were children:

 This is my mother with her younger brother, Claude, in front of their home in McMinnville:

 She grew up in the small town of McMinnville, surrounded by family and friends from school and church:

 When the war came, she took a job as a secretary for a military base in Corvallis, Oregon. Yes, she was a beauty:

She met my father, a Marine passing through the base at Corvallis. They married and moved to his family home in Ohio. There, my sister and I were born. We were raised with a respect for nature, identifying plants and animals with the Little Golden Books available at the time. She was a determined anti-racist and devout Christian, raising my sister and I in a local church. But in her theology, love trumped everything else, and her life proved it. After she divorced and her children were on their own, she moved back to Oregon to take care of her aging mother and her sister with Parkinson's. My mother died in 1997, a woman loved and respected by everyone who knew her, and is buried beside her mother and sister in a little mountain cemetery in Oregon:

Popcorn Wagon Update

Way back in September, 2010 I posted the story of my Grandmother's popcorn wagon in McMinnville, Oregon. You can find it here. When my sister and I were visiting, we'd often spend a few hours with my grandmother (Mom Jenkins) working in the popcorn wagon. Well, a friend recently passed through McMinnville and stopped to take new photos of the historic popcorn wagon:

When Grandma retired, the wagon was restored and purchased by a museum in the capital city of Salem. But they eventually removed it from their collection and it was saved by the McMinnville Fire Department and has been displayed there ever since:

The door was at one end and the popcorn cooker at the other. You can see it at the top of the photo. When the popcorn was done, that overhead "pot" dumped onto the steel tray beneath it. There, butter and salt were added. If I remember correctly, that tray was heated so the popcorn stayed hot until it was scooped up into bags:

This is a new sign, but it's certainly of the original type. The sign I remember said "Mom Jenkins Knows Her Corn:"

Yes, she also sold roasted peanuts. I can't remember if she roasted them right there in the wagon but I think so:

The popcorn wagon is now on permanent display in the McMinnville, Oregon fire station:

My sister and I used to take turns accompanying our grandmother to the popcorn wagon when we were young. There certainly wasn't much room inside, but there was a lot of love, both from Grandma and the customers, so it was a wonderful experience. And that's not to mention all the free popcorn, caramel corn, peanuts and Lifesavers:

Everything inside was shipshape, with a place for everything and everything in its place. Fresh popcorn was popped right there, but popcorn balls and caramel corn were made at home in the evenings:

The sign says "operated" by the McMinnville Volunteer Fire Department. I wonder if popcorn is ever made there anymore:

Our grandmother was a single woman with six children during rough economic times. She was an entrepreneur of the first order with her popcorn wagon and boarding house. She knew not only how to survive but to thrive:

A Bit Of Popcorn Flavored History

I recently received an email from a cousin in Oregon with this old photo of an antique popcorn wagon:

Now, this is not just any old-time popcorn wagon. This is the one which was operated by my grandmother on a downtown street corner of McMinnville, Oregon for thirty years. This is the popcorn wagon from which my family received Christmas gifts every year of caramel corn and red and green popcorn balls. This is where my sister and I sometimes used to spend the day when we visited Oregon for the summer. This popcorn wagon has lots of memories for me and for my family:

My grandmother, a divorced mother of six, supported her family by selling popcorn and by renting out apartments in her large, old Victorian home. It was a family business and in the evening, we might be expected to help out mixing up huge batches of caramel corn in the giant copper kettle (that's my sister on the stairway watching):

Because we only visited in the summertime, we never got to help make popcorn balls. But we certainly helped (well, we were young so perhaps I should say we watched, not helped) with the making of caramel corn. This is my mother sometime in the 1950s putting it into bags after it'd been spread out to cool:

My sister and I searched through all our old photo albums for photos and newspaper clippings. "Mom Jenkins Knows Her Corn" was a favorite sign in downtown McMinnville, Oregon for thirty years:

And it became known widely across the state from human interest stories which appeared in many cities' newspapers:

In January of 1966, my grandmother retired and sold her popcorn wagon:

It was loaded up and hauled to a museum in the State Capital of Salem, Oregon:

That's McMinnville's J.C. Penny store in the background. Just around the corner is the city's only movie theater. She made it a point to be making popcorn when the movie crowd let out so that the aroma would draw them over to buy a bag of REAL popcorn (and she also roasted peanuts):

These are only a few of the many newspaper clippings from around the state, but you can see that it became a beloved symbol of old time goodness, honest dealing and wholesome food:

I found this City Vendor's License from 1952 interesting, mostly because it cost forty dollars. That was a lot of money back then, especially for an elderly lady with a big family to support:

Eventually, the museum in Salem decided it no longer wanted to display the old popcorn wagon. Local civic groups in McMinnville rescued it and the last I knew, it was displayed proudly in the City Fire Department Building. But I'll always remember it sitting next to J.C. Penny in downtown McMinnville: