“Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It’s too controversial.”
Today is like yesterday, cold and cloudy. The slush has become ice ruts making it difficult to walk to the mailbox and the drive-way. I take such small steps I imagine my feet in dainty slippers, the sort Chinese dancers wear. I had plans to go out today, but I changed them. I’m staying home and staying warm though I do have to go out to fill the feeders.
My mother used to get really angry when we opened the cereal from the bottom so we could get the prize, and she’d threaten not to buy that cereal again. I never understood why it upset her. I figured one end was the same as the other when it came to getting the cereal out of the box. My brother and I took turns keeping the prizes though we’d often forget and end up fighting as to whose turn it was. That too used to make my mother angry.
The prizes were in a small paper like envelope at the bottom of the box. My favorite prize was the submarine which actually moved up and down in the water on baking powder fuel. I remember it was gray and was about the best prize of all. We’d fill the tub and play with that submarine for what seemed like hours. It was the main weapon in our imaginary war. I remember we’d yell, “Surface, surface,” though that was the sub’s decision, not ours.
I seldom eat cereal now. Once in a while I buy Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies, and I actually still listen to the Snap, Crackle and Pop once I put the milk in the bowl. Corn Flakes need some help like bananas as they are by themselves quite boring. For a while I used to buy variety packs and have the cereal as a snack. I’d open the perforation on the back and pour my milk right into the box. I thought that was sort of neat, in both ways, nifty and clean.
Cereal is really expensive now, but I’d buy a box if the submarine was in it. It wouldn’t matter the kind of cereal. It’s the submarine I’d want, and I’d open it from the bottom.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: cereal prize, Rice Krispies
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
January 14, 2011 at 12:54 pm
I do remember those toys in the bottom of the package 🙂 🙂 The one I loved most was a yellow locomotive. Since I was five years younger than my youngest sibling I never had to share them with anyone 🙂
But naturally a kid had to swallow one of those toys and all hell broke loose as I remember it, so suddenly they stopped putting those things in the packages.
I have used cereal as snacks too and they are as good as any real snacks 🙂 But as You say, they are really expensive today, but I would buy a package if they had put in a submarine in it 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
January 14, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Christer,
I’m with you-I’d buy the package just to get the submarine.
I don’t think we ever had a locomotive, but it might have been on the cereal well after my wanting cereal toys days.
I still like the toys in Cracker Jack!
January 14, 2011 at 1:05 pm
The Submarine was very international and its baking powder power was enjoyed in our bathtub in Yarm Court Road.
Cereal diving was quite a serious issue – the box image was always a little generous, but small paws were anxious to rustle through the newly opened box of cereal to find that small plastic bag and the toy.
Wait until you eat enough cereal to get to it, was the command, not a chance was the response. Out came the bag, in went the hand and then all the fun of trying to reunite bag and box.
Plastic cars, space men, collections of cigarette style cards, Letraset rub offs, mail ins, Robin Hood and his merry men.
AND what joy if you were lucky enough to have a cereal box with more than one gift !
Dang, I am supposed to be working but now I am thinking about all those wonderful little toys
Oh and we could talk PG Tips and the very Famous Typhoo Tea Footballers
Thanks Kat – REALLY cool post today
January 14, 2011 at 8:40 pm
My Dear Hedley,
We could never wait, and the bottom box top was always destroyed in the getting. My mother was never pleased.
I remember tattoos which my brother claimed as a male thing, and I remember little books whose pages you turned really fast and the drawn figures moved. I made a few of those myself.
Perhaps it was not meant for you to work today!
January 14, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Why is it I never thought to open the box from the bottom? I’d shove my hand down there and root around for the prize. As I was the youngest and the only one eating Count Chocula or similarly disgusting cereal, no one complained about my germs and I got to keep all prizes. But somehow opening the box from the bottom was way outside my reasoning.
I eat Honey Bunches of Oats and stock up on it at Wal-Mart when it drops to $2.00. It’s the only place that sells my favorite with peaches in it.
January 14, 2011 at 8:42 pm
Erin,
Maybe there was a bit more of the imp in us that we went right to the bottom. After all, it was the right thing to do to go from top to bottom.
I got to tell you that I can’t imagine I’d ever eat cereal with peaches.
January 14, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Here you go: http://www.coolscienceclub.tripod.com/baking_powder_submarine.html
Cheers
January 14, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Minicapt,
That was really cool. I wouldn’t never have figured, when I was young, that carrots actually had a purpose other than to make me gag.
January 14, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Well you’re still bad. . . but who cares? I hated cereal so can’t connect with the story even if you promised to mail the submarine to me. I always had oatmeal that was warm with cinnamin sprinkled all over it and sometimes cuts of banana. I even eat that when I’m down with something as I can feel the fullness on my tummy. I wouldn’t even know what a korn flake tasted like.
January 14, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Z&Me,
Oatmeal was our winter cereal, and we ate it sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Cold cereal was for the rest of the year.
You are the first person I know who never found a cereal they liked.
Corn Flakes get soggy very quickly-their only drawback.
January 14, 2011 at 8:24 pm
I still enjoy a bowl of Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes with skim milk and blueberries or strawberries. As a kid I grew up on those basic cereals along with Sugar Frosted Flakes (Tony the Tiger) and Sugar Pops (shot from guns). Saturday morning TV influenced my breakfast taste.
My mother tried to serve us Cheerios, Shredded Wheat (which tasted like a dried grass raft) or Wheaties but unless their was a great prize we would not eat them. Our ploy was to empty the box into a large mixing bowl and get to the prize. My mother would then attempt to pour the stuff back into the box.
Have a great weekend.
January 14, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Bob,
I’m also a Corn Pops cereal and TV influenced me too. My brother loved Cheerios; I never did. Shredded Wheat reminded me of hay that horses ate. I did like Frosted Flakes, but Rice Krispies was my favorite.
I love your bowl strategy!
January 15, 2011 at 6:27 am
Maggie loves cheerios. She sits patiently next to the kitchen table each morning catching individual pieces, while I am slug gin down a bowl of cornflakes. It’s part of our morning routine
January 14, 2011 at 8:56 pm
The submarine! Yes! Yes! I had not thought about it in years, but I too had one and considered it amazing.
Now, I consider you amazing. And I love your music selections. Thanks for being there.
To health and continued happiness in the new year!
January 14, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Clark,
I think because it was the fun toy and we also got to mess around in water that we all remember it. THanks for the kind words!
Happy New Year to you as well!!!!
January 15, 2011 at 12:05 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Cats are such creatures of habit. Miss Fern stands on her hind legs on the bed each morning waiting for her treat. I always have one waiting for all three creatures as Miss Maddie hears the package and comes running. Gracie waits impatiently for hers.
January 15, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Hi Kat,
My favorite cereal toy was the diver. It worked the same as the submarine but was an old fashioned, bell helmeted, non-scuba suited diver. It was always white.
Milk and I have always had a testy relationship but my mother never believed me and made me eat my cereal with milk anyway. Nowadays, I eat cereal dry most of the time. It’s a snack food.
January 16, 2011 at 10:31 am
Hi Caryn,
I think I also had the diver because the picture jogged my memory bank. Mine was yellow.
I was never a drink milk for milk’s sake person, but I never minded it in my cereal. I especially like the milk on the bottom because it tasted like all cereal.