Life….Just Add Milk

Just the other day I was thinking a lot about Life. Cereal, that is. I love Life cereal. Always have. Even back in the day when the commercial featured little round faced, dark hair, Mikey. Remember the tag line? “Have Mikey try it. He’ll eat anything!”

I have had an ongoing love affair with cereal. Probably comes with the fact that as a young child, I was a very picky eater. So my mom probably assuaged her guilt by loading me up with a bowl of cereal, fortified with this and that. It was quick, easy, and I was thrilled. Cocoa Krispies, Pops, Life, Raisin Bran….it was a buffet of whole grains and milk. I used to tell my own four kids, “If you don’t like what I made for dinner, then eat cereal. This is why God invented it.”

Cereal is a favorite nighttime snack for the grandkiddos. No matter how much they inhale at supper, after baths and jammies, I usually hear that petition, “Mamaw….can I have a bowl of cereal?” I always comply. Even my sister will call me up and say she was just having her nightly bowl of cereal. I won’t mention that she often slops the milk right down the front of her robe….but I have it on good report that she does just that.

Cereal. I could survive on it. Plain or with milk it is comfort food in a bowl. Speaking of bowls, I was given some bowls recently. They were square. Umm….how are you supposed to drink the leftover yummy cereal-flavored milk with a square bowl? What moron invented that??? I put those bowls in the Goodwill faster than you could say, ‘snap crackle pop’.

Back to real Life. Cereal, that is. I was very shocked to learn that my Grape Nuts Flakes has far more fiber than Life. Who would have known? Has anyone told Mikey? I’m just saying that at my age I don’t get many surprises. Of course at my age, when fiber content is the big deal of the day, this is pretty pathetic.

Hey! Since I am writing about cereal, it reminds me of a Halloween a few years back, when my son’s friend dressed up with a cardboard box that said Corn Flakes, and it had blood and knives stuck in it. Guess what he was? Yep… a ‘cereal killer’!! HAHAHA! I digress.

I just want to warn all of you out there that the cereal you have love and trusted just might be a bit diminished. Hard to take, I know. But be strong. One can always fall back on Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal. (I would mention grits, but I think they are just whiney Cream of Wheat Wannabees).

Okay. You can go back to your real life and ponder grown-up issues like the stock exchange, presidential debates, and gas prices. But whatever you do….don’t buy any of those square bowls!!

I am beginning to realize how my sister got all of that milk down the front of her. Just saying….