Thursday, 9/12

The note from Pam in Marquette was right to the point--

“What is it with you and cereal”?

She was referring, of course, to yesterday’s blog about buying food from Germany. Pam didn't seem to mind all the tea I bought, nor the (lack of) chocolate. Instead, Pam wanted to concentrate on the fact that I buy cereal from another country. But you know what, Pam? Wouldn't you when you gets cereals like this??

I thought not.

8-)

That's right. One has cherries with two kinds of chocolate, while the other is orange & dark chocolate.  So you know what? When you come to think about it, maybe it doesn't really matter that I didn't buy a lot of chocolate bars this time around. I sure made up for it with the cereal, didn't I?

Of course, cereal and I have a long & storied history. I don't know that I could necessarily explain why, although this may—may--explain some of it.

I've probably told this story once or twice, and if so, forgive me. But like I said, it may explain something. When I was three years old, my mom took me grocery shopping. While she was looking through the canned peas or something healthy, I wandered off alone in search of the Holy Grail...the cereal aisle. I don’t know exactly why I did what I did (after all, do any 3-year olds know why they do what they do?), but what I do know is that by the time my mom found me, I had opened 12 boxes of cereals in search of the free prize inside. Yup--I had opened a dozen cereal boxes right there in the store, looking for whatever gadget was in the box. Apparently, we as a family then had to eat nothing but Corn Flakes for the next week as my mom was forced to spend all of the grocery money to buy the boxes I had opened.

Cute kid, huh? Well, two things about the story. The first is that, as I jokingly keep telling her, my mom misses the point of the story--here I was, three years old, and could read enough to know what the word “free” meant. That hasta count for something, right?

Right?

The second point is that, ever since I was that 3-year old, I’ve been fascinated by cereal boxes and the stuff inside them. As a kid, I collected everything from Cap’n Crunch cereal bowls (which I think I used well into teenage-hood) to Presidential trading cards from the back of Cheerios boxes (which is probably, why, to this day, I can name the last 19 US Presidents in order). That interest doesn’t seem to have changed in the decades since.

So should it really come as any surprise that my fascination with cereal has combined with my fascination with Europe to become a fascination with European cereal? Nah, I didn’t think so...especially when those European cereals combine two different kinds of chocolate with cherries or oranges?.

I mean, that’s like nirvana to someone like me, right?

And that, Pam, should answer your question. At least, I hope it does!

(jim@wmqt.com)