To this day, I dislike that all time favorite breakfast combination of cereal in milk. Bob will eat it for breakfast. Although our children have their own preference of brands, the three of them eat cereal on a regular basis. All seven of our grandchildren consider cereal a treat. Like a toddler, I’m content to snack on just dry cereal.
However, pour it in a bowl, cover it with milk, and I’ll say that I prefer toast. Since I’ll eat most anything, especially at another person’s house, I have wondered why I avoid this highly recommended combination of food groups.
Not long ago, a television commentator mentioned decoder rings from radio days. A flood of long forgotten memories rushed back. Just like cereal companies place a variety of toys in the boxes today to entice children to pick their brand, the trend started ages ago. Only back in the days of radio, the toys were decoder rings, big, bulky, gaudy circles of cheap metal much too large to fit any child’s finger. But we children had to have them. That is, they were a must if one listened to the many radio series like “The Shadow.”
At the end of each program, the announcer read out a series of letters and numbers which contained a message for the listeners. However, there was a catch. We could only interpret the message by using a certain cereal’s decoder ring. Of course, the codes in the rings changed every few months, thus encouraging a new wave of purchases.
However, children in my neighborhood were pretty wise. We set up a cycle so that only one of us had to wheedle our parents into buying the next box of cereal with the new decoder ring. As soon as the program ended, we, armed with the code scribbled on a sheet of paper, gathered on the front porch at the home of the ring bearer of the time, and translate that series of letters and numbers into words. I don’t remember any message particularly, but I think they were pretty mundane. Through our clandestine ways, though, we felt like spies.
Although my dad owned a grocery store and you would think that I could have anything I asked for, my parents insisted that I eat every grain in any box of cereal I picked out. Unlike the kids on commercials of today who hide their unpopular breakfast bars in their lockers or the garage, I wasn’t duplicitous enough to dispose of that cereal. And so, every morning, I sat at the kitchen table until every flake of cereal disappeared. As I think about it, I’m surprised that I will even eat dry cereal as a snack today.
I think the discipline that my parents taught me has had long lasting positive effects. While I pay attention to local ads, I’m not in the least influenced by TV commercials. And while I might buy a product based on the recommendation of friends or family and I might be amused or touched by the creativity of certain commercials, I don’t rush out to buy the latest trend. I guess I’ve decoded all the messages I want to. However, as I think about it, that discipline has also destroyed any desire to eat a traditional breakfast of cereal in milk.
I imagine most of our quirks arise from similar experiences if we ever wanted to chase down the reason. Probably, most of us just accept our dislikes and avoid them. However, these days at the grandchildren’s homes, I disdain of stepping on that proliferation of cheap, junky toys accompanying every fast food meal for kids and hidden in every cereal box and package of cookies. Multiplying like rabbits, they’re everywhere.
Whenever I hear that crunch underfoot as inevitably I will, I expect a great outcry about my destroying a favorite plaything, but I never do. It’s as if the junk comes, it goes and there’s always plenty around. What's the message there?
2002
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