If you love something, if you are truly passionate about that thing, you should go all in. It doesn’t matter what that thing might be.
Perhaps it is cross-stitch. Maybe you like working on cars. Raising flowers in a garden. Creating spray paint art. No matter what it is, you should follow your heart and your dreams. Listen to what you love.
That’s what Orville did. I mentioned him before, once or twice, over the years. But the man was passionate about popcorn. Orville Redenbacher.
He was born in Brazil, Indiana. That is very near Terre Haute, which is almost all the way to Illinois. You can see corn for miles and miles in those parts. In the summer. When the weather is right. His family owned a farm, and that is where young Orville grew up. With ears everywhere.
Something happened one day on that farm. You and I will probably never know when or where that moment was. But young Orv discovered the miracle of one small piece of corn popping. The split second when it sits, sizzling as a lonely seed, and suddenly — abruptly — it explodes. But it doesn’t burst into smithereens. No, instead, it erupts into a fluffy white little lump of magic.
And, he so loved corn, popcorn in fact, that he started selling it at a young age, from the back of his car. Long before he even graduated from high school.
From there, he decided to go to Purdue University, which was not too far from his hometown of Brazil. Just 70 miles north if you drive Indiana 59 to 231. We won’t hold it against him that he went to Purdue. A lot of people have made this mistake.
Anyway, he made a business of selling corn. As we all know.
In 1951, he and partner Charlie Bowman bought the George F. Chester and Son seed corn plant in Boone Grove, Indiana. Now, that’s even further north, almost all the way to Lake Michigan.
They named the company “Chester Hybrids,” they tried tens of thousands of hybrid strains of popcorn before settling on a hybrid they named “RedBow.” I think it is no coincidence that Orville often wore a Red Bow tie. I bet he came up with that on his own.
So there they were. Chester Hybrids Popcorn. Some smart fellow at an advertising agency advised them to use Orville Redenbacher’s own name as the brand name. And they never looked back. They launched their popping corn in 1970.
By the mid-1970s, he moved to a place called Coronado, California, where he stayed for the rest of his life. Married twice. Both wives died before Orville passed.
Which brings me to this topic. Today marks the date of his passing, September 19, 1995. He was 88 years old. He went outside to his jacuzzi hot tub and decided to get in. While enjoying the bubbles, he suffered a heart attack and drowned moments later.
And that was the end of Orville Redenbacher. His ashes were scattered out to sea. I think they should have spread them in some cornfield somewhere. The Green Giant would never tell. But one thing is for sure. He had a passion for his popcorn.
Pop on, Orville. Pop on.
And a sidebar for the rest of us? Don’t take a hot tub by yourself when you are 88 years old. Buy a good blanket instead.
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Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
— Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
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My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.
— Maya Angelou
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Enjoy the journey and try to get better every day. And don’t lose the passion and the love for what you do.
— Nadia Comaneci
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When your passion pops up.
