The ice cream trucks thread got me thinking that growing up in the sixties that we did not have an ice cream truck in our town. We still had a couple places in town with soda fountains as well as a restaurant that had an ice cream shop in the front that we visited often. But what we did have in town was a popcorn wagon. It was always parked in the same spot downtown every summer. I lived nearly a mile from it but we would walk down there a couple times a week and get a big bag of fresh popped corn with butter for 25 cents when we could talk mom out of some money. She was usually happy to do it as it was a cheap way to get us out of her hair for a couple hours. You could also get fresh roasted peanuts, potato chips and assorted theater candies like Black Crows and licorice gum etc. I had not thought about that wagon in years until I read the Ice Cream Trucks thread.

So I decided to research it and lo and behold the wagon is still in use and celebrated it's 100 year birthday just last year. It is only out on holiday or community event weekends now not every day like it once was. This is a pic of that wagon I used to visit as a kid. Man the memories flooded back when I found this pic!

Betcha the popcorn costs more than a quarter now!

Back in the 1900's there was one similar to that at the city park.

Gum was a nickel, candy bar was .20 cents, pop was a quarter.

In Wheaton Illinois there is a popcorn store that opened in 1921. It is in a covered alley between two buildings probably not more than 5 feet in width.