Step 1…get a box
I remember stuff from when I was way little. I can remember things from when I was about three years old. But today, we are talking cereal. The reason behind this blog post is because my friend and I were talking about this the other day. Even though we were texting back and forth, I can assure you were dying laughing, texting about this very subject. What does this have to do with remembering things when I was little (by little I mean probably around 9 or 10)? Grocery shopping. We shopped at Sooper Dooper. A great little local grocery store, where I ended up working all through high school.
We rarely got to go grocery shopping with our mom when we were little, but when we did, we would hang out in the cereal aisle while our mom was shopping. The cereal aisle was in the center of the store, across from the frozen foods. Once she got to the cereal aisle, we would get the look. You know that look. The one that pretty much insinuates that we should not even bother asking for it. See, we always wanted Cap’n Crunch or Lucky Charms or Sugar Pops, or basically some of that sugar laden, chemically laced cereal. What we mostly always got was Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, Wheat Chex, Cheerios or Puffed Rice—GAG. That stuff was so disgusting. Do you remember? It came in a bag, not a box. Cheap! That should give you a clue. To this day, I still hate that stuff. It was like eating a piece of cardboard, laced with air. You couldn’t put enough sugar on that crap. Her argument, if I remember correctly, is that the sugared stuff was too expensive.
But once in a while we could catch her in a weak moment, or in reality, she was probably sick to death of us bugging the crap out of her begging for sugared cereal. Once in a while we begged enough. We got to pick a box of sugared cereal. The good kind in our eyes.
Do you remember how many kinds of cereals there were? Just like the cereal aisle now. A crap ton. So we would look at every box trying to decide what good kind we were going to get. Sometimes we just wanted the prize that came in the box. Scouring and scouring forever to find the best crap cereal with the best crap prize. It took a while sometimes. Quisp, Sugar Pops, Corn Pops, Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms (my personal fave), Life, Golden Grahams, Count Chocula, and the list goes on and on. Those tricky cereal marketing people. How is anyone supposed to pick with that many kinds?
Like I said, Lucky Charms was my personal fave. I also liked Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries, although if you ate too much of that the roof of your mouth was shot for a few days. The only bad thing, in my opinion.
To tell the truth I’m not sure how healthy or frugal our mom thought she was being. I can vividly remember sitting at the table, putting my Cheerios in my bowl, adding milk, and then adding teaspoon after teaspoon of that pure white sugar. Our sugar bowl was pink depression glass. It was a cool sugar bowl. I bet I put at least six teaspoons of sugar on my Cheerios. Then the cereal feast. Once you got to the bottom of the bowl, you could see the thickness and syrupyness (not sure if that’s a word) and the gray color of the sugar that had leaked through all the Cheerios and made it’s way to the bottom of the bowl. Mmmmmmmmmm. Wheat Chex was really good this way too.
Buuuuttt, that’s rookie stuff. Moving on to the pro cereal eating session. I know most everyone has done this. It’s not foreign to any of us. Anyone in my circle of friends anyway. Step 1, get a box of cereal. Step 2, get the bowl. Step 3, get the spoon. Step 4, get the milk. Finally, step 5, belly up to the table. We will use my personal fave Lucky Charms in this cereal eating session. Okay, ready?
Channel yourself into your younger self sitting at the table. You fill your bowl with Lucky Charms. Next you pour the milk, not too much, not too little. Next comes the spoon, you have to dunk all the cereal into the milk, including the cereal against the sides of the bowl. And now, you start eating. As you are eating you peruse the back of the cereal box and see what’s happening on this box. Any good prizes? You probably read the ingredient list too, although at that age it really doesn’t mean anything. By now, the cereal is getting a little softer and is almost gone. Hmmm, but you still have milk left. So you add more cereal, just enough. Or not. Now you have to add a little more cereal. Repeat until the milk or the cereal is gone. That, my friends, is the pro version of sugar-laden cereal eating. You didn’t get the gray sugar at the bottom. You got the sugar throughout the whole cereal eating experience. Pure heaven in a bowl. I haven’t done that in years, probably 10. Thank God! I have to admit, I bet I could still do it.
Do you remember? What were your favorites? I’m glad we didn’t ever get the Crunchy Loggs!!!
