Cereal glitters golden in my
childhood memories. Nothing (except maybe
summer vacation) held as much mysterious promise as a new box of
fad cereal. A treasure in every box: a
refrigerator magnet, a
rubber band powered toy car, maybe a water-soluble ink "tattoo". The animated Freakies
mascots (led, iirc, by "
Boss Moss") were monsters. They had a song...
We are the Freakies,
We are the Freakies,
And this is our Freaky Tree
We never miss a meal
'Coz we love our cer-e-eal...
I'm sure I drove my mom nuts when she took me grocery shopping; it seems like the Golden Age of cereal, 1975-ish, when Lucky Charms made the bold move of adding blue diamonds to their marshmallow array, and BooBerry and Fruit Brute took a brief ride on the grim coattails of the ever-popular Count Chocula. Grins, Smiles, Giggles, and Laughs echoed from the lips of every TV-watching child. That stuffy Quaker never had a chance.