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NOTE 16. The Permanent Thing Called Cereal

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The Permanent Thing Called Serial

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Sometimes, for your own mental wellbeing, it is a meritorious act to remove yourself from

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the hustle-bustle of daily life, with its mind-boggling busyness, technological frenzy,

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ever-changing professional demands, and relentless pressure to be drawn into ephemeral fripperies,

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and instead reflect on what T. S. Eliot called the Permanent Things.

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The things that bind us across time and space and unite the generations, the things that

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we know will long outlive our limited days on earth.

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I speak, of course, of breakfast cereal.

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This is America's number one choice of morning food.

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As with many of the permanent things, its origin is religious.

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In the ancient days, people ate very little fiber for breakfast.

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Then, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a Protestant religious reformer who

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ran a sanatorium had the idea that eating grains was good for mind and spirit.

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The idea was then picked up by John Harvey Kellogg, a Seventh Day Adventist.

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Specifically, our minds are drawn to the brands that seem to have always been with us and

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always will be.

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They are permanent fixtures of the cultural landscape, as alive and present in the life

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of someone born a few years ago as those who were born many decades ago.

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Even today, a walk through the grocery aisle is a blast from the past for many of us.

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We feel nostalgia even as our children feel a sense of excitement at what is, for them,

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something completely new.

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Nothing lifts the spirit like watching a young member of a new generation discover a classic

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we know so well.

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Hey Dad, can we get these great tasting snacks?

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That phrase, which can be heard around the world, should be accompanied by music.

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It is evidently very difficult to introduce a new serial into the market, which is as

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it should be.

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Consider the ever old, ever new.

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As you do, think of this.

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We all recognise these names from our childhood.

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The young today know them all too.

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Our children's children will know them too, most likely.

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How many icons of popular culture are there, brand names no less, of which this can be

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Said, Cheerios, since 1941 and still the most popular, Shredded Wheat, since 1893, Rice

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Crispies, since 1929, Wheaties, since 1924, Grape Nuts, since 1897, Kellogg's Cornflakes,

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since 1906, Captain Crunch since 1963, Smacks, Kicks, Tricks, Alphabits, Apple Jacks, Boo-Berry,

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Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp, Fruity Pebbles, Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs, Cocoa Crispies,

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Loot Loops, Raisin Bran, Frosted Mini-Weeds, Life, Honeycombs, Wackies

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Half of Americans eat cereal every day.

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We eat 2.7 billion packages of cereal every year.

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The wonderful cereal industry uses 816 million pounds of sugar every year to produce them.

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Truly, Americans love cereal, but not as much as societies where tradition is valued

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even more highly than here.

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Ireland ranks number one in cereal consumption, England second, and Australia third.

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And how marvelously impervious to the complaints of the Puritans we are.

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Amazon sells a number of books denouncing cereal for its supposed dangers.

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How often do we hear complaints that these companies are attempting to sell junk food

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as if it were health food?

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But we ignore it all and just keep crunching away.

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It's true, of course, that anyone with an all-cereal diet wouldn't fare well, but that's

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not what we're talking about here.

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What makes cereal great?

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Of course, it only takes a minute to prepare poor, poor eat.

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Also, I'm not kidding about its ability to link the generations.

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It is comfort food, a breakfast that we can eat when we are very young and very old.

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It's true that our tastes change, young kids fall for every advertising gimmick, cuckoo

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for cuckoo puffs, middle-ageders go for the grainy health thing with the soothing voice,

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never mind that it is basically the same stuff.

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We are what we eat, and we want to eat what we are.

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is there through all stages of life.

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How happy are my memories from my mid-teen years when I would get the largest mixing

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bowl in the house, pour in an entire box of Captain Crunch with crunch berries, along

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with half a carton of milk and start crunching away using the largest spoon I could find.

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These are the memorable scenes from our coming of age that we carry with us throughout life,

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even unto death.

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There are some mysteries yet to solve in the cereal world.

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I've never understood why some cereals like sugar smacks come wrapped in foil, whereas

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others like Froot Loops come wrapped in plastic.

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I wrote Kellogg's, and they sent back the following answer.

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We base our choice for both inner and outer packaging materials on our need to deliver

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fresh product to stores in the best possible condition.

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We look at our packaging to control the absorption of moisture, control breakage, and prevent

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and any other type of damage that might occur during the shipping and handling of our foods.

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Now, that's not quite what I was after, but good for them for answering it all.

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I confess to some disappointments.

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As you might guess from the above, my number one top favorite cereal of all time is Captain

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Crunch with Crunch Berries.

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When I was growing up, there was only one kind of Crunch Berry, red.

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The idea was to eat all the crunch and save the crunch berries for later, unless you were

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15 and you no longer cared.

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Then somewhere along the way, some jerk decided that crunch berries should be many different

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colors, even though it is not the case in nature.

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So now, Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries comes with green, blue, purple and who knows

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what else crunch berries.

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I don't know what's with the people who would dare to make such a change.

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Respect the Classics, I say.