The first donation to Ephemeral 80s is here and it's an unapologetic corker. It's a packet of Butterkist popcorn dating back to 1983. But, hold on to your hats, it improves with every glance. Not only does it feature a competition to win a state-of-the-art Sinclair ZX81, but this very packet was dug up by a cunning fox with whiskers and history on its side.
Everyone, surely, loves popcorn. And if someone doesn't enjoy crunching it noisily and covering themselves in kernel detritus, they can eat elsewhere. Butterkist have been serving up their popcorn to eager British mouths since the late 1930s, and it's failed to lose any of its magical, sugary charm since then.
This is why I was delighted when an Ephemeral 80s reader got in touch to say they had an ancient packet dating back to 1983. It was perfect for Ephemeral 80s, being the type of find which not only gets me out of bed in the morning, but straight into the gym for an intense workout before felling a (sustainable) forest. However, the story behind this historic artefact is even more intriguing.
Far from being kept neatly pressed in a folder for the last forty years, this has spent most of its life underground. I know it sounds far-fetched, but where else do you find history? What's that? Museums?! Well, yes, but you can also find it buried in the earth beneath your feet.
As you can read here, it emerged in the finder's garden after being dug up by a fox. Maybe this fantastic fox was, much like yourself, a fan of long-forgotten ephemera from the 1980s. Perhaps the vintage gods just happened to be smiling down on us that day. Whatever the machinations behind its discovery, it's a remarkable find.
Remember, this isn't just popcorn, it's SUPERCRUNCHY SUPERDELICIOUS POPCORN as the packet informs us. And WHAT a packet it is. The colour scheme is stubbornly plain, mostly browns, yellows and whites, which indicate the presence of graphic design’s lingering 1970s hangover. The packet follows the period’s house style with a simple, faintly cartoony field of corn standing to attention beneath a vacant sky.
Thrillingly, there's a clear window through which you can actually see the popcorn. Legions of baying snack nostalgists mourn their disappearance every day, but the truth is that light is the sworn enemy of freshness. Not that anyone ever left popcorn unopened for more than five minutes. The cost of this sugary indulgence? Just 12 of your hard-earned pence. No weight is given, but the packet assures us it's a NEW SIZE.
The real embellishment is the Sinclair ZX81 competition. Released two years before, in 1981, the ZX81 helped smuggle home computing into British bedrooms. They were never exorbitantly expensive, but winning one would have been the dream of any sticky-fingered popcorn munchers. All they had to do was collect five tokens from Butterkist packets and answer the following questions:
1. Give a ten-letter word using some of the top line of letters on a Sinclair keyboard or typewriter.
2. If it takes 5 boys 5 minutes to eat 5 bags of BUTTERKIST how long does it take 1 boy to eat 1 bag of BUTTERKIST?
So, there we have it, a peek back at 1983, a moment which destiny would have kept buried, were it not for the actions of a wily, curious fox. It's a perfect fossil of Britain in the 1980s: beloved hydrogenated fats covered in sugar and fledgling computers - what more could you want? And it makes me wonder, what else is out there, lurking just beneath our feet? Rare packets of Monster Munch?!
Many thanks to Will for his kind donation to Ephemeral 80s!
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