Today is National Cereal Day.
Hmmm....
What to say... What to say...
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.
Actually, I get it, sometimes (I'd imagine especially with a large family), it's nice to have a little breakfast haven.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the "Quiet Car" on the train commute to New York City in the morning. I actually get George!
ReplyDeleteA little "piece of quiet" in the morning is welcome sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI remember how much fun the boxes used to be, with puzzles and riddles and games on them.
I remember how special cereal day was! I loved my Raisin Bran.
ReplyDeleteAs an only child, I had plenty of quiet at breakfast time. No forts, but I loved the variety packs of cereal that my Mom sometimes bought - 10 single serve boxes, and I could choose my cereal for the day.
ReplyDeleteI'm the one who did the cereal box forts when my kids were bickering, thankfully I didn't have to do it too often.
ReplyDeleteThese days about the only time we have cereal boxes is when I make trash (homemade chex mix), but having cereal in the house reminds me of quick meals and the children with drippy spoons over bowls.
ReplyDelete