Memory of the street popcorn

In China, when we were young, there was a profession called popcorn workers. They make popcorn for kids.

We provide rice or corn, pay worker processing fees (usually a few cents in the 1980-90's).
Worker put rice into a sealed metal pot, mix rice with sweetener then heat. When the pressure reaches a value, the worker kicked the pot open, with a loud bang, the air is full of yummy flavor, done.

Mythbusters also have a episode of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhTdAMWiYeo, but they did not use a sack when the pot was opened.

Typical street popcorn equipment

It is so delicious and cheap,  the joy of all kids. We often line up.
Of course this popcorn is very rare now.

When I was in primary school, I had a master named "HaiLong". We lost contact for years.
I called him "master", not because he taught me Kung Fu, but he is older than we are, he lead us play also to protect us.

The middle is "master". All the kids were forced to tie a red scarf.

His father is a popcorn worker, sometimes to our district to work, I can see him.
Dirty soil and face, because of this, he looked very embarrassed to see me.

But, maybe he did not know that,
in fact, in the hearts of kids, he is a magic hero.