When I was in the tenth Grade at Mark Keppel High School, a girl friend, Marlene, asked me if I was interested in a job at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Her father had the popcorn concession at both the Los Angeles Coliseum and Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. She was a good friend so I said, "Sure." You had to sell popcorn at whatever event was at the Coliseum. The best was the NFL football games. You can't sell at NFL games during the game, only before, during halftime and timeouts and after the game. For Sunday games we went to the Coliseum on Thursday to begin popping corn. When there is close to 100,000 fans at a game it takes a lot of popcorn.

We would pop perhaps 20,000 bags filled half full on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday we would fill the bags mostly full. On Sunday morning early we would put fresh popcorn on top. The bags were 50 to a box and cost 10 cents each. The seller got 2 cents. I was a gung-ho salesman and took 10 boxes at a time, 500 bags. I would pick a spot set them down and yell at the top of my lungs, "Get your pigskin popcorn." My record was 2,500 bags at a game. That was $50 for a night's work. Five years later when I went to work for Pacific Telephone I made $49 for a 40-hour week. No one could sell as many bags as I did.

I also worked at the 4th of July fireworks, auto and motorcycle racing and other events. Except for the 4th most were not as good selling as the NFL. I also sold popcorn at the Los Angeles Angels Baseball games. Los Angeles was in the Pacific Coast League and played teams like the Portland Beavers, Sacramento Solons, Hollywood Stars, Oakland Oaks, and Seattle Rainers. Sometimes the fans complained that the popcorn was a "Day old." I always told them truthfully that it was definitely not a day old.

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