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.