Popcorn Ball Drop 2022
2022 was the first year I was involved in the Chagrin Falls New Year's Eve Popcorn Ball Drop. The ball had been stored in a horse barn since the previous New Year's Eve drop and the first thing we needed to do was give it a new coat of popcorn. I'm not sure that anybody ever said what had happened to last year's layer of popcorn, but in September we convened to put a fresh layer of popcorn on the ball's two foam hemispheres. A team of about eight people spent a few hours applying about six plastic leaf bags full of popcorn. Then we left the balls safely in a horse barn.
This is the stuff that sticks the popcorn on: spray foam. Not only does it get the popcorn kernels to adhere to the foam ball, but if there are gaps between the kernels the foam looks just like popcorn.
We came back a couple weeks later to patch about a square foot that still needed popcorn only to discover that varmints had eaten every kernel of popcorn off of the two hemispheres. And something had pooed on the top of one hemisphere for good measure.
Our Poobah of Popcorn had to go make another boatload of popcorn and the team reconvened and reapplied popcorn and spray foam.
Our team very nearly stored the ball in the horse barn again, this time suspended from ropes which you can see in the background of the above photo. Fortunately a few phone calls yielded varmint-free storage in a friend's light industrial space.
In early December the ball was moved from the light industrial storage space and installed in front of the Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop. Not a kernel had been eaten during the weeks it spent in the shop.
Besides the ball, the other main component of the Chagrin Falls New Year's Eve Popcorn Ball Drop is the flag pole. The ball is hauled up using four pulleys that are secured to the pole with ratchet tie-down straps. These are rigged every year by the Chagrin Falls Fire Department. Preliminary hoisting ropes can be seen descending to the left of the pole.
The day we raised the popcorn ball was overcast and cold. Half the day was spent working with numb fingers, but we got the ball positioned on the pole and the sixteen hoist ropes are in place.
Will on New Year's Eve with the popcorn ball in the background. At show time the street behind him was filled with people with crowd size estimated to have been about 1,500 people.
Here is a glamour shot of the town triangle taken by one of the Popcorn Ball Drop's partners, Drone Ohio.
The popcorn ball has dropped! Will and I were in charge of the drop and the ball hit ground about ten seconds too late. It was in freefall and the drag in the rigging kept it from falling any faster. Next year we need to get an estimate for how long it takes the ball to fall on the day that we hoist it. That will mean hoisting it twice, but it will be time and effort well spent.
Will, Rob, and I are relieved after the drop is complete. Rob is the brains behind the popcorn ball and its rigging.
Will and me. A little blurry
The popcorn ball was removed from the pole and returned to the front of the Popcorn Shop on January 1, 2023. Then a few weeks later it was returned to storage in the light industrial space. Here is one half of the popcorn ball on its way back to the light industrial space.
Both halves safe and sound until the next New Year's Eve.
