My mom was a simple cook. It was never anything she wanted to spend a lot of time doing. A special meal was a Salisbury steak frozen dinner (loved that small indent with the apple cobbler). Back then, I thought all spinach came in a can that looked and tasted like seaweed. Was I ever surprised as an adult when I realize what fresh spinach could be like. These days, I eat it regularly in my salads.
As a child every breakfast was cold cereal, a glass of orange juice from concentrate, and a chewable children’s multi-vitamin. Occasionally there was a piece of white bread toast that I would lather with a dollop of margarine and orange marmalade. I rarely ate breakfast with my dad. Mom made him bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee before he headed off to work. Every couple of months, on a Sunday, dad would get the waffle iron out and make a couple of batches. Such a treat!
I didn’t like cereal that got soggy in milk real fast, such as Rice Krispies. I think my mom bought one box of Wheaties. Since I had to add my own sugar, I told her, “Don’t buy it ever again!” I liked Captain Crunch, but if you ate it before it could soak up enough milk, it felt like you were cutting up the roof of your mouth. There was a period of time where Frankenberry, BooBerry (my favorite) and Count Chocula were brands on the market. My mom bought them all. One big marketing competition was between two brands; Quisp and Quake. There were commercials during Saturday morning cartoons pitting the cereal icons against each other. I liked them both, but Quisp was my favorite. Quake was a lot like Captain Crunch. Once in a while mom would buy Lucky Charms or Trix. I could eat Lucky Charms forever, but the flavor of Trix got old, fast. The best part of eating a bowl of cereal was slurping up the remaining suger-soaked milk!
My mom ate Raisin Bran and granola cereal. I didn’t like them much. Toward the end of my cold cereal eating days, a brand came out called Fruity Pebbles (associated with the TV show The Flintstones). It was awful!
These were the days when there was one cheap plastic ‘prize’ at the bottom of the cereal box. Kids would bug their mother to buy the cereal that had the best prizes. One time, Super Sugar Crisp incorporated a record disk into the back of the cardboard cereal box. You had to cut it out with a scissors. You could play it on a record player. I got the songs “Sugar, Sugar”, by the Archies.