Breakfast.
The most – interesting – meal of the day.
Mom believed in beginning the day with a good, hot, hearty meal.
Bacon. Sausage. Eggs. Pancakes. Waffles. Ham. Fruit. Muffins. Fresh bread. Cinnamon buns. French toast.
A breakfast milkshake that included eggs and fruit. And occasionally, chocolate.
She mixed and matched.
And pure deliciousness emerged.
But sometimes, she allowed us kids to graze.
Okay, her version of grazing was to set out a plethora of cold cereal boxes and let us take our pick.
Funny how kids accustomed to ‘home-cooked’ can think ‘store-bought’ is a real treat.
But we did.
We happily selected and poured and sugared and crunched.
Except for big brother George.
He did all of that . . . and built a fort.
His breakfast fort.
And, because he did it, and made it look like fun, I had to do it too.
Did you know it’s possible to sit at the same table with someone and never even catch a glimpse of them?
Well, it is.
With a little ingenuity.
And a lot of cereal boxes.
George would set a large cereal box on either side of his bowl. Then add a third to connect the first two.
Voila!
Cereal box fort.
Private and exclusive.
One could eat one’s bowl of awesomeness and never even know that one had breakfast companions.
Well, until Mom came, demolished one’s fort with her genius for quick and effective relocation and a, “Stop doing that, you two. We need to see each other’s bright and smiling faces in the morning!”
To which George would inevitably reply, "My face isn't bright and smiling!"
Yeah. Cereal boxes. They can hide so much.
They can hide so much, but not from mom. Never from mom!
ReplyDeleteMoms see all!
DeleteI can think of a few people I wouldn't mind doing that to while dining! Might have to buy some cereal boxes!
ReplyDeleteBwahahaha! Yes!
DeleteWe rarely had store-bought as children. And DID consider it a treat. Not now.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't tell you the last time I had prepared cereal. It just doesn't appeal any more. I guess it was the fact that we didn't get it often. Made it more special. Or maybe we just liked building forts...
DeleteI had mostly store bought - every sugary cereal you can think of. But some of my favorites were Cheerios and shredded wheat. Guess I was a strange kind. And because I was an only child, I didn't have to build any forts.
ReplyDeleteMy personal favourite was Shreddies. In a pinch I'd eat Bran Flakes. With lots of sugar. Ugh. Makes me wince now! ;)
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ReplyDeleteSorry, messed that up.
DeleteMe and middle-child brother were always seated on one side of the table, youngest on the other. He would make a cereal box fort and yell, "Stop looking at me!" and cry because of course, if we looked up from our bowls, he just happened to be across from us.
How glad i was when i went to a different school and had to get up earlier than they and ate alone.
I remember having AlphaBits from time to time as a kid. We would try to spell things with the letters and our cereal would get soggy. Never did make a fort but it sounds like it could have come in handy!
ReplyDeleteHahaha! So did we! And so did our cereal. Yuck.
DeleteWhen I was 16 I went to live with mum and that's where I discovered cereal box forts. Built by mum, to stop the eternal "Mum he's making faces at me" "Mum she's looking at me" "Mum he poked his tongue out at me"
ReplyDeleteI couldn't believe the antic those step kids got up to with every single one being jealous of the other. That's how it seemed anyway.
Oooh! Built BY Mom. Now that would be something I could get behind! (Pun intended!)
DeleteLove this. Cereal carries so many childhood memories for me. We’d save our allowances to buy those packs of little tiny boxes of sugar cereals since Mom didn’t buy them. Then we’d sneak them and eat them in my dad’s old school bus he kept parked by the garage. Lol. I haven’t thought about that in a long time.
ReplyDeleteMom would never buy those for us, either! And we only bought them for our kids when we were on holiday. Special, indeed!
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