Saturday Morning in America
It's Saturday morning in America, do you know where your children are? I know the service announcement is really, "It's 10pm, do you know where your child is?"; but it has a certain ring to it for Saturday mornings as well. The answer from today's parents, of busy households, will certainly be very different from answers decades ago, not that households weren't busy then, just a different kind of busy!
If you happen to not be running out of the house; pop tarts, granola bars, bagels and such in hand, then you might find your children as they would have been on a Saturday morning in America years ago...on the couch, floor, or chair in front of the TV with a bowl brimming over with floating pieces of cereal looking as if they are ready to jump ship as the milk sloshes in the bowl. Sometimes it's the bowl teetering on the edge of the couch or an open box of cereal hands plunging in to scoop up that sweet breakfast treat! Then there are those who neither favor a bowl or box, and choose the dump it all out method of morning snacking!
Earlier this week we celebrated National Cereal Day; I propose we look at moving the day to always be a Saturday because in many of our memories, cereal says Saturday. Well for me that's what it used to say because the weekdays sometimes were too rushed to sit down and enjoy it in bowl, out of the box, or off the couch cushion; and Sunday always seems like a more formal breakfast on a plate kinda day!
A bowl of your favorite cereal can sometimes be the only dose of therapy you need when feeling stressed or blue. Cradling that bowl between your hands is like putting your hands on a magic amulet that takes you back in time. It seems to have transporting powers taking us, as adults, back to a time when maybe life wasn't so hectic and schedules were a bit different. Where you got out of bed still a little sleepy but the call of the bowl and the box, and then the Saturday morning TV shows were calling your name, coaxing you to rise and shine!
Those Saturday mornings frequently brought us the 3 C's... cereal, cartoons, and chaos!! The days of prizes in the cereal box and who would get to it first! The last bowlful in the box and again, who would get to it first! This sometimes lead to, the chase, maybe we should call it the 4 C's, around the table through the living room, if you were the youngest or shortest jumping up to grab onto the box like the brass ring on the carousel. Unfortunately the chase sometimes led to the spilling of what was left in the box, and all competitors were left, with that warm steaming bowl of lumpy goodness called oatmeal; don't get me wrong I actually love oatmeal and I find the smiling Quaker on the container to be bidding me a good morning! Yet we know most children's reaction to a steaming bowl of oatmeal versus a colorful palette of floating cereal pieces in a white pond of milk!
Today's choices for breakfast are many, so many; but, cereal still seems to rank high with the younger crowd, especially on those lazy mornings. Cereals come and go and then we have the steadfast ones, the soldiers that still stand tall and mighty on the shelves year after year; the boxes sometimes change a bit, but the friendly mascots, who technically aged still are calling to us to grab a box off the shelve and dive into that crunchy goodness. They may have been treated to a facelift or two, but their familiar smiles still beckon from the front of the box...whether rabbit, tiger, toucan, frog, cuckoo bird, leprechaun, captain, three elfish characters, or the most familiar Cornelius, "Corny" the rooster; they are like an old friend and every once awhile they find their way back into carts with memories of those Saturday mornings.
So let's go back and remember Saturday morning in America when you were relaxed, smiling, sitting in front of the TV and savoring every spoonful of crunchy, or soggy goodness! I don't begin to judge your choice of crunchy or soggy because cereal eating is a personal choice, art if you will! While it seems to be an easy and simple breakfast, it really can be one of many decisions, some that will greatly affect the cereal eating experience. Aside from the cereal selection, there is the bowl...is it the flatter pasta style or the deeper soup style; some have been known to use the Tupperware storage bowls! Then the spoon, teaspoon, tablespoon, and for those who like a big bite perhaps a serving spoon. Of course there was the attempt at one time to simplify your choices and the single serving boxes were born. Perforations offered a way to open the box and add milk and ta da, you had a rectangular, cardboard bowl and one less thing to wash in the end! Now the shelves offer a less messy solution with their plastic bowl shaped packaging; simply peel off the foil, add milk and a spoon, voila, you're ready to nosh!
Talking about cereal selection, was that really your favorite cereal that you jumped up and down for in the aisle of the grocery store when mom said no? Was there something else that was calling to you? Most likely, yes! It was the coveted prize! Before McDonald's offered the Happy Meal with a toy; cereal companies were putting prizes in the bottom of the box! Really? They couldn't put it on the top of the cereal in the box; which we all know would have made life so much easier, and reduce the chaos of retrieving the prize without actually eating any of the cereal!
How talented were you at this fishing expedition? Did you merely get the box home, get a ginormous bowl and pour out all the contents until the prize plopped onto the mound of cereal; or did you roll up your sleeves, tongue out to one side (I still don't know about this practice, is the tongue out to one side for leverage? might be worth investigating for a future blog) and plunge your hand, fingers wiggling, feeling for the prize through the sea of cereal pieces? How many can be honest and say they patiently ate their way to the bottom of the box and the reward awaiting them days or weeks later? Did you ever have the harrowing experience of getting to the bottom, one way or another, to find yours was the box that Inspector 185 didn't check and you were, gasp, prizeless?
Then came the days of sealing the prize in its own plastic bag and later putting it outside the liner and attaching it to the box; I'm sure all done based on scientific research of the unsanitary practice of prize fishing. Then one day I noticed instead they started to change the prizes by printing the prize on the box; trading cards, gameboard, or sometimes a record or small book sealed onto the outside of the box. Then it was collecting UPCs, proof-of-purchases that had to be mailed in; which to me seemed like we were going backwards; to the days of Ralphie and sending for his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring from the makers of Ovaltine.
Prizes weren’t only a source of controversy and sibling battles in the home, but the Federal Trade Commission considered banning TV commercials which promoted cereal box prizes as a way to sell cereal in the early 70’s.
The New York Times and other papers and magazines have run some interesting reads about all that is cereal. They give us a glimpse of how that breakfast treat that filled and fills our bowls came about; brining some of the fondest memories of Saturday morning in America!
What was your favorite cereal? Is it still the same today? Does pouring it out of the box and hearing it hit the bowl evoke memories of the days you carefully poured it as a child and sometimes had an avalanche in front of you? And what about the milk? There are certainly memories of the sloshing and trying to get just the right amount by getting the right momentum and angle, almost having to apply formulas from Physics class to get a steady stream of milk without the splash and that occasional big spill…and how did you clean up the spill…kitchen towel, paper towel, or slurp it up off the counter or table? Whether your favorite cereal comes in a box with an alien, the Flintstones, a chocolate Count, a pinkish Frankenstein, or a blueberry tinted ghost on the front; whether you drown it in milk or eat it right out of the box, I hope you have a few of those Saturday mornings in America memories to transport you to a day that starts with a smile!