Easy way to make popcorn for the whole family!

I grew up in a popcorn loving family, so when I got married and we had some children (ok, six, to be exact!) I had a strong desire to continue that tradition. Time to watch the beloved Vikings crush the Packers? Pop up some popcorn. Going to watch a vhs movie? Pop up some popcorn!

All was going well until my very old family popcorn popper, well, popped. I've never had the oily popcorn (something about hot oil and a hot pan makes me not want to take it up, either), and I just can't stand the fake taste of microwave popcorn. So off I went to buy a new popcorn popper.

Wow, these things are hard to find!!! At store after store... Walmart, Target, K-Mart... the clerks had no idea what I even was asking for! I was beginning to think maybe air poppers just weren't made anymore, when I finally spotted one at Pamida, for only $15.99.

I triumphantly returned home, and we have been using it at least twice a week ever since.

We did have one incident when my 13 year old thought he'd put in more that the half cup, and it started smoking! I thought he'd ruined the popper, but after letting it cool off and dumping out all the burnt kernels, it worked fine.

We never use the butter try, we just nuke the butter in the microwave for 25 seconds, so I am not sure how effective that feature is. It pops up the popcorn quickly (about 3 minutes from plugging it in to the last pop), and never has burnt pieces.

My only complaint is the lack of an on-off switch. My old one from the 1980's didn't have one, either, but I guess I'd thought with technology advancing, the popcorn powers that be could have thought up a way to put one on by now. There are often sparks when unplugging it, which makes me a bit nervous.