Letter to the Editor

Popcorn king, queen had a blast

Sunday, October 25, 2009

To the Editor:

As you may have heard, I surprised my boyfriend for his 25th birthday to go to the Orville Redenbacher Popcorn Festival of Clay County.

This letter is to inform you on how wonderful the festival was, how amazing the people in Brazil are and how something so small as a birthday came out to be an amazing experience for both my boyfriend, Christian, and I.

Our trip to Indiana was just for the Popcorn Festival. I had contacted the Director, Glen Brown, and his wife about airports and the location of the festival and told them my idea to surprise my boyfriend of the adventure. He gave me so many great ideas and made his birthday an unforgettable one.

Our experience was amazing. We arrived at 8 p.m., on Friday night, and arrived at the festival at 10 a.m. We were greeted by all the festival workers, who had huge smiles on their faces and opening arms. We took pictures of everyone together. We were given the festival article and a tour of the festival. Before taking part in any of the activities, our first stop was to the gazebo. We each bought T-shirts, which we wore the whole day and an official popcorn bowl made in the town of Brazil. We didn't care about the weight due to the plane we had to get on, we had to have it!

Christian signed up for the popcorn eating contest and although he didn't win, he had a great time. We also went into the cabin museum and learned some great facts and signed the book of all the visitors. It's exciting to say that we are now a part of Brazil, Ind., history.

We shopped at the vendors and I bought a really great pair of shoes (I wear every day).

One of the best parts of our trip was being able to make the popcorn and serve it to all the festival guests. While serving popcorn, we got to talk to the local people of Brazil and learned a lot about the history of the town. We took pictures with the fountain, which we thought was one of the most interesting things that we saw that day.

We got to eat the noodles and chili from the noodle guy and a ton of popcorn. We did save room for the Jonah Fish Fry.

For starters, I don't eat fish. Christian was extremely excited about it. I had a taste of his and immediately had to get my own. Everything was so fresh and delicious. We both wish we could have taken some home with us.

Christian was surprised with a birthday cake made from Goodies Galore and was named the King of Popcorn and me Queen of Popcorn for the weekend. I knew Christian was the king, but it was a surprise to me of being the Queen. Christian wore a crown and sash, which he would never do back home. This made the festival even more magnificent then it already was. It made us feel so appreciated and we both appreciate how much everyone went out of their way for us.

We enjoyed watching the Blue Swamp Group. It didn't matter if it rained and it was cold, we were sitting there and enjoying the music and regretting that we had to take a flight home in the morning because we would have loved to stay another day. The fireworks were spectacular and make a perfect closing to a perfect day.

All together, we would both like to tell you how great the town of Brazil was to us and how much of a great time we had at the festival. We appreciate everyone for going so far out of their way for us. The Browns had truly made Christian's birthday enjoyable, relaxing and unforgettable.

The festival was a great experience and we are definitely coming again with friends and family to enjoy the same experience we had. We have been to a few festivals and we both agree this tops them all.

The festival brought us both even closer together than we already are. The hospitality in Brazil was so welcoming and it made our trip very special. We can't wait to share our experience with people at home and look back at all the pictures and memories that we have from the Orville Redenbacher Popcorn Festival.

Thank you so much for the great article written about it. It will be framed and hung in our apartment. We also want to thank the Browns and the crew who did so much to make our day wonderful and extremely valuable. It was so special and generous and greatly appreciated.

We hope to see the familiar faces of everyone from the festival when we return back for another year of food, fun, laughs and let's not forget, popcorn.

Sincerely,

Hillary Weiss and Christian Ratliff