Ridiculous Lucky Captain Rabbit King, Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets are for the youth!

[dolari]

When I was a litle kid in the heyday of the late 70s and early 80s, I would see all these lovely commercials for cereal, and man, they SOUNDED so so so good! All these kids eating cereal and having sugar highs and screaming about honeycomb being big-yeah-yeah-yeah.

I never got any.

My mom wasn't being mean or nasty, but was being pretty health conscious. We only ever had corn flakes. If we were good, we had lucky charms. Anything else was verboten. And in fact, mom went out of her way to tell us that all the other cereals tasted just like Lucky Charms and Corn Flakes.

YOU DON'T QUESTION MOM, so I believed her, and seeing as I really didn't like Corn Flakes, and eventually Lucky Charms even became kinda boring, I stopped eating cereal alltogether.

Along with the boring cereals, my mother only bough watery tasteless skim milk. Now, as a kid, I didn't KNOW it was skim milk. For me, it was always just "milk." Thin watery barely any difference between it and water milk. I only had it with cereal, and when I stopped eating cereal, I stopped drinking milk. Considering I know have the calcium leeching estrogen in my veins, this was a really bad move.

Eventually, I learned there was a difference between the cereals, and between the milks, but by that time I was 15 or 16 and had gone so long without them, they just weren't part of my frame of reference anymore. I hadn't had it for so long, I didn't need it now.

Adding insult to injury, in 1995 Waffle Crisp debuted to millions of people by putting a free small box of the stuff in the sunday paper. They did this by giving it it's own self-sealed paket in the Sunday Paper plastic sleeves. At the time I was making a living out of throwing newspapers, and I had about 400 of these boxes in the garage. I dutifully packed a Huge Sunday Newspaper in each sleeve, threw it in the truck, and then went out to deliver it.

In those days, this was how I threw the Sunday newspapers - my dad drove the truck down it's route, with a copy of my route list. He'd point out which houses needed papers, and me, in the back of the truck, would throw them into the driveway. The Waffle Crisp bags, though...they didn't fit the paper right. After throwing 10 papers, and having all 10 paers fly out of the bags, suddenly 400 papers was beginning to look like it would be a chore.

I walked that whole route with the truck creeping along as I gently placed each paper on the driveway to keep the papers from splattering all over the damned lawn. After six hours of that, I swore I'd never EVER eat Waffle Crisp, even though there were about 50 or so boxes left over. After sitting in their bags for a day or two, my mother threw them out (they're not healthy!)

Fast forward to 1996, I move in with Dean, and am shocked, utterly SHOCKED, to find in his pantry TEN BOXES OF CEREAL. Opened. All going at once. NONE OF THEM CORNFLAKES OR LUCKY CHARMS. Dean is an avid ceral buff, buying the latest and greatest cereals from anywhere and everywhere that catches his fancy. Movie Tie In? Let's get it! Strange new brand? Let's get it! Crappy store brand with amusing name? I got it!

Dean was also an avid milk drinker, resulting in what are prolly the densest bones on the planet. For me, milk was just "thick water" so I didn't really touch it. I kinda stayed away from the cereal for a while, not sure what to have from the buffet, but eventually curiosty got the better of me, and I had...Trix.

After a bowl of that, I knew why that damned rabbit loved his Trix. And even the milk, which was whole milk, was better. After that, I was hooked - all those sugary barely nutritional cereals were at my disposal. Even the Waffle Crisp I swore on my mother's goat I'd never have became one of my favorite cereals.

I'm not as bad as Dean is about getting the latest and greatest cereals (my standard is Special K, when I feel like splurging THEN I get the good stuff), man, I do loves me some junk breakfast, now. When I go to my parents, I sometimes look in the pantry to see what my parents have on their breakfast plates. Mom's branching out - when she splurges, she gets....Grape Nuts.

Well, there's no accounting for taste. :)

Comments

[jenmarie.livejournal.com]

Cereal is my ultimate comfort food. Something about it is just simple and soothing, though I couldn't pinpoint what it is.

My mom didn't get particularly experimental with cereal either. Raisin Bran, Shredded Wheat, Cheerios, Kix, Rice Krispies, the Chex varieties. The most sugary we got were occasional Corn Pops or those wheat puffs with the 'honey' on them (I can't remember what they were called, but they had a frog mascot). VERY rarely, Honeycomb.

I've never been a junk cereal person, whether because most of the cereals were of the low-sugar type, or what.

But I can down an entire box of Chex, Kix, granola in one sitting - easy. Same with those bags of unsweetened puffed rice or wheat.

I have my non-healthy cereal weaknesses, though. Cracklin' Oat Bran should be called CRACK with oat bran. Same with Honey Bunches of Oats. Yeah, they sound healthy, but not when you down an entire box. ;)

I love trying new things too, but damn ... the non-sugary specialty cereals are EXPENSIVE. So I don't indulge in the unknown more than once a month or so. hehehe

[ghostangel.livejournal.com]

Oh man, don't get me started on Cracklin' Oat Bran :9 Most expensive cereal EVAR, but SO WORTH IT. ;_; My favorites as a kid were Cinnamon Life, and ironically, Grape Nuts (with sugar sprinkled on a little). Mostly if I couldn't eat it dry, I didn't eat it, cause I can't digest milk at all. :x

[chaoticset.livejournal.com]

Grawd, how I loved Waffle Crisp for a while...mmm. I love waffles more, though, so once I learned how to make them myself, Waffle Crisp just didn't handle the need.

I still break out a box of Lucky Charms every now and then, but I've gone the way of your mom, sorta. I usually hit the Total, because I know I'm utterly vitamin-deficient, and 2% milk (because I'm going to be getting calcium from other sources, and, um, I have incredibly strong bones and such. My body's just damned sturdy.)

[jenmarie.livejournal.com]

Oh I totally forgot about Life cereal! That was another one my mom would get. mmmmmm


Yeah, I love anything that's good for dry munchies too. Or good with bananas. I never really got into other fruit on cereal, but bananas are the perfect complement to so many cereals.... and they keep me from wanting to add sugar or honey. heh

[aspasia13.livejournal.com]

My favorite cereal of all time was a limited-release movie tie-in called C3POs, coordinated with Return of the Jedi. Oh those things were good (to the best of my memory, and a friend of mine agrees). You tube even has one of the old commercials: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP2DJ2xWbQY

Since General Mills' headquarters is local, I think we get used as a test-market for new cereals, because there's often short-lived varieties. I loved the cheerios with bananas and strawberries, but they were always so expensive. I bought it a couple of times when it was on sale. I don't know how they did it (maybe I don't want to know) but in milk the fruit had a texture and taste that was almost fresh, not like the typical dehydrated stuff in other "berried" cereals.

Needless to say, I grew up without many sugared cereals as well. Usually Rice Crispies, Raisin Bran, Corn Flakes, Cheerios, and Chex were staples in the household. Later on Honey Nut Cheerios became standard fare. The one exception to the rule was when the family went camping, and bought those variety packs of 1-serving boxes of cereals. Those were days to look forward to.

However now that I'm on my own I've not been entirely so healthy in my choices. My favorite cereal these days is is Cocoa Crispies. Of course, my favorite beverage is also chocolate milk. Hmm, I sense a theme ;o).

[mikeyarrum.livejournal.com]

I love me some Grape Nuts for some strange reason. I may have to try Oreo O's someday... oh, and I absolutely LOVE Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Glad to hear Dean's got good bones - vegan and PETA types are always saying how milk is basically liquid fat. Just goes to show you can't trust anyone, I guess...

[fragment00.livejournal.com]

I try to eat healthy cereal. As much as I like Kashi's GoLean Crunch (why does that sound like engrish?) I can't eat it more than a couple days before I get sick of it and want to break out the lucky charms.
gods I love lucky charms.

[debbie-ann.livejournal.com]

Usually I have oatmeal for breakfast nowadays, but back when my brother and I were younger, we had a lot of the sugary cereals: Lucky Charms, Trix, Fruit Loops, Cocoa Puffs, the "Monster Cereals": Frankenberry, BooBerry and especially Count Chocula, much of the Cap'n Crunch family of cereals, also goofy movie and TV tie-in cereals like Pac-Man Cereal, Donkey Kong cereal, E.T. Cereal, Mr. T Cereal, Smurfberry Crunch and C3P0's...and more I'm not remembering. How we didn't end up with diabetes from all that sugar is beyond me...(although we did have problems with cavities in our teeth, not surprisingly).

[nathan-r.livejournal.com]

Quaker Oatmeal Squares. Ever since I became lactose-intolerant, straight milk has been utterly anathema for me, and this has severely curtailed my cereal consumption. I can't really have any cereal at all unless it contains no dairy products (and it's amazing how many do, including my former favorite, Special K) and tastes good either with soy milk or plain out of the box. Quaker Oatmeal Squares are the best out-of-the-box snacking cereal I've ever found. They're delicious, and just the right size and shape for grabbing a fistful.

Oh, and everybody here needs to be reading the webcomic Breakfast of the Gods. Trust me on this one.

[http://users.livejournal.com/strangelv__/]

Honey nut cheerios, but only dry. I've also experimented with the dehydrated bananas and strawberries, usually tossing the box after eating all the bananas and strawberries (blame my mother for this one, except for the tossing the box part).

With milk: large quantity of Grape Nuts, fill a little over the top with milk, and let it soak for about 10-20 minutes until completely soggy (blame my father for this one).

Either is rare, unless I'm needing to have adequate meal substitutes in arm's reach of bed, in which case a cereal to eat dry will be around. At age 19 my hypothalamus abruptly went from 'a gallon of milk a day is barely adequate' to 'I'll pass, thank you' and I've not been able to enjoy a glass of milk since. Given that grocery shopping is a once a week activity for me (sometimes once every two weeks), this may be for the better...

[iqtech.livejournal.com]

I love Grape Nuts! I add in some chopped nuts and raisins then eat it with cultured yogurt milk. Yum!

Course, I also adore Peanut Butter Captain Crunch with - chocolate milk. Whole, not skim.

[takhisis.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I grew up with the Healthy Cereal and lo-fat/skim milk regimen too (rice krispies was the most sugary thing I ever had), as well as diet soda, and I ended up growing up with an aversion to sweets/rich foods. Anything higher than 2% milk to me tastes like drinking half and half, and most cereals and sodas are so sweet to me they practically make my face invert.

I guess it helps my diet by keeping me away from desserts and such, but I seem to have replaced it by becoming a cheese addict, so it's not THAT much of a help. ;)

[hemlock-martini.livejournal.com]

I'm lactose-intolerant too, and I just recently started eating cereal again because we now get lactose-free milk in our area...at the risk of sounding like a commercial, Fat-Free Dairy-Ease is the stuff I get, and it's kind of expensive, but it tastes like actual real milk. Lactaid is good too, if kind of chalky. Check them out if you get a chance. I fucking LOVE cereal. Last year we had a movie marathon/pajama party and everybody brought their favorite cereal to eat on the floor in their jammies...

Also? Lactose-free ice cream! It exists, trust me.

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

>ever since I became lactose-intolerant, straight milk has been utterly
>anathema for me.

I have a wierd metabolism. Somedays it's lactose intolerant. Somedays it isn't. Somedays I can drink a gallon and not feel anything, other just looking at a gallon will get my intestines cramping.

I have a taste for soymilk as it is, so it doesn't bug me one way or another. :9

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

>My favorite cereal these days is is Cocoa Crispies.

The bad thing about Cocoa Crispies is that they're eXACTLY two bowls per box. I end up buying huge bags of non-name crispies so I can get smoe life out of them.