Saturday Breakfast Was A Cereal Event

“Breakfast!”

Mom’s final warning crashed into our ears. We had already heard “time to get up” in pleasant tones about 15 minutes earlier. Sometimes, even the smell of bacon wasn’t enough to raise us from the dead of sleep. This was Mom’s routine every school day, from the first kid to the last of the five of us, for more than 25 years.

We took the breakfast menu for granted. It rotated between eggs and bacon or links, oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar, and pancakes with Log Cabin or Karo syrup. Waffles took too long and before Pam spray, were a rare failure for Mom. Toast and homemade jam was included with every meal. We didn’t appreciate her breakfast menu because we had nothing to compare it to. When we visited relatives for breakfast, it was much the same because they were farmers or had grown up on a farm. They knew the value of a hearty breakfast.

The only deviation from this school-day breakfast menu was during a period I refer to as the “European Experiment.” The folks had visited England and Norway and Mom thought we should be educated in some of their dining pleasures. For breakfast, this involved egg cups and sweet soup. Breaking the top off a soft-boiled egg in a cup is kind of fun – once. But eating the egg through a small opening with a tiny spoon while dodging shell fragments is ridiculously slow. Norwegian sweet soup is a delicious blend of dried fruit, tapioca and spices in a syrup, but it just didn’t seem right at breakfast. We ate it for supper, too. She made gallons of it. 

I don’t remember ever eating cold cereal for school day breakfasts. Dad wouldn’t allow it. That was reserved for Saturdays when the folks slept in. There was something special about Saturday breakfast. It was all about the cereal, prepared on our own. First, we had to carefully reach for the boxes, stored on a ledge above the basement steps. Then, if any were new boxes, we rifled through them with unwashed hands looking for the prize shown on the box. If the box was already open, you knew the prize was already gone.

We ate multiple bowls of the stuff, the sugarier, the better, although we often stirred in more. We drowned it in whole milk in the early years, then were switched to two percent, which we despised until we were forced to endure one percent milk. Two percent tasted like cream after that, if we ever encountered it.

We often ate in the dining room from which we could watch cartoons across the living room. We also read the back sides of the cereal boxes because there was always something cool shown there. I don’t remember seeing any nutritional information on the boxes back then. The ingredients were probably, from most to least: sugar, preservatives, processed grain and food coloring.

We weren’t usually with Mom while she shopped at the Farmers Store or Corner Grocery but if we were, we came prepared to beg for some new exotic cereal that had a toy inside. Those with the word “sugar” in the name were likely candidates. We instinctively knew that boxes without toys were for old people and required adding sugar.

We had many favorite cereals. There were the basic cereals like Cheerios, Wheaties, Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran, Grape Nuts, Rice Krispies, Shredded Wheat and the various Chex cereals. But these were mostly boring, you had to add sugar and they never came with a prize in the box.

Many of the sugared cereals announced it in their names such as Sugar Pops, Sugar Smacks and Sugar Frosted Flakes. Other sweetened cereal I remember from back then included Fruit Loops, Cap’n Crunch, Lucky Charms, Kix, Cocoa Krispies, Cocoa Puffs, Alpha-Bits, Apple Jacks, Trix and Life. For awhile some cereals included freeze-dried bananas or strawberries, a gimmick that didn’t last long. One was Post Corn Flakes and Strawberries.

We really loved the little boxes of cereal that came in a variety pack. That way you could try a lot of different ones. Remember the Kellogg’s Kel-Bowl-Pak? You cut open the small box along the perforated lines and ate right out of it. Great for camping or the living room floor.

My go-to favorite was Sugar Frosted Flakes, especially with whole milk. I ate bowls of it at each sitting. I remember that one of brother Dave’s favorites was Cocoa Krispies because he loves anything chocolate. Warren ate a lot of Lucky Charms. I don’t know what Laurel and Bruce liked. Since they were the first kids, they were probably forced to eat Shredded Wheat.

Today you’d be hard-pressed to find cereals with the the word “sugar” in their name. “Frosted” or “honey” accomplishes the same thing but sounds, well, less sugary. Heck, Sugar Frosted Flakes only had to remove the first word.

Our kids ate a lot of cereal but they didn’t get to read the boxes or dig for treasures unless they were present when Catherine poured each box into clear plastic containers. Such deprived children. I did see them reading cereal boxes when taking out the recycling.

Today, with the kids gone, we need to focus on fiber and low sugar. My choices from the clear containers include Life, Grape Nuts, bulk granola, Oats and More and Frosted Cheerios.

Oh, and Crispy Hexagons. I think I’ll have a bowl right now with one percent milk and a real banana.