A Little Glimpse of What Was

And now... A little snippet of childhood.

Looking back to when I was just a little, ninja genius, I don't remember much. I just happened to be downstairs fixing, because it was apparently broken, a bowl of cereal, and thoughts came back to me like a drunk remembering the reason he was in prison. And why he was naked. I've mixed cereals for as long as I remember, and just moments ago I was doing the same. Memories of the cereals I ate as a kid came back too. Not all of them too clearly, but enough to allow me to write this and waste some time.

I was into all of the classics; Lucky Charms, Trix, Cap'n Crunch, Cookie Crisp, Corn Pops (Which I just found has a silver bag that contains the cereal. Apparently it's special and can't be contained in simple plastic.), Apple Jacks, etc. Getting up on Saturday mornings was a great chance to view what would be coming next in the world of cereal. What kind of free plastic doodad, or other cheap toy made in a third world country I would kick and scream for the next time my mom was trapped with me in the breakfast aisle. It didn't matter what the cereal was, I wanted the submarine that would dive on its own and then resurface, or the octopus wall-walker. The bad thing about my mixing fetish was that it would take longer to deplete the supply of one box than if I had just eaten it straight with a milk chaser.

The specialty cereals were some of the best though. I was very young, but I remember Star Wars cereal with the cut-out mask of one of the characters on the back. To my recollection, all I ever had was C3-PO because no one wanted to pretend to be that loser. I didn't know what a loser was though, so it mattered not to me. The cereal was very similar to Honeycomb, if I remember correctly. There was a Super Mario/Legend of Zelda cereal... I don't remember what the cereal was like at all though. It was out for a very short time, but the prize was a free issue of Nintendo Power magazine, or perhaps just tips on the inside of the box. I might have to do some research on that one.

Batman had a cereal that came with a little plastic piggy bank that was shaped in the torso of Michael Keaton as Batman. I had that thing for years, and then I think I discovered what a real bank was. The bat symbol cereal was much like Cap'n Crunch without the cutting-of-the-roof-of-your-mouth-iness that came with it. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was, essentially, Chex with marshmallow turtles. The marshmallows made it a kids cereal. The special deal with that was a t-shirt with a holographic image of the Turtles that displayed through the front of the box. Again, I'm a little sketchy on that. Perhaps it was just a mail-in offer, but my way sounds cooler. Instant gratification!

I could go for some TMNT cereal right now.... I think I'll go pick up some Chex and mini Marshmallows and spend my weekend sculpting tiny turtles with appropriate color and weapons. That sounds like a productive use of my time.