Evening Commercial Break: Yellow Moons
No wonder this Irish trickster-spirit always reacted to the sight of children by saying “they’re after me Lucky Charms.” They had a history, going back to the very first encounter:
In subsequent installments he would employ magic to escape, which always seemed counterproductive – why not use your enchanted shillelagh to make the earth swallow them whole, or summon a flock of screeching birds to peck out their eyes? They’ll be considerably less interested in stealing your cereal when they’re running away screaming in fear and pain, and much more likely to seek legitimate means of obtaining the foodstuff. Little thieves.
Then again, I always sided with the Trix rabbit, too. It made no sense that he was denied Trix. Why? Some international convention, perhaps? Interpol has expressed its concern that the rabbit might have Trix. Great lesson for kids: you may be small, weak beings with few legal rights, but at least you’re not the rabbit. Laugh at him! Smack the bowl from his paws! It’s okay.
Lucky Charms was, and is, my favorite non-grown-up cereal. I don’t care if it’s compacted grain nodules studded with sucrose-dusted styrofoam; I love it. Whenever my parents knew I was coming home for the weekend, my Mom would always have a box of Lucky Charms in the cupboard. I still buy it when it’s on sale. The rest of the childhood cereals I’ve left behind, including King Vitamin – that stuff was like eating a mouthful of jagged metal. You brushed your teeth after that, and when you spat it was like a a boxer gobbing in the bucket after six haymakers to the jaw.
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Lucky Charms is the Christmas of breakfast cereals; the great high chief, to which the entire pantheon of cereals must bow. We used to just eat the “Charms” and leave the “Luckies” in the bowl. Drove mom nuts.
I am still laughing. You are such a wordsmith.
My favorite cereal is no longer made, alas. Post Fortified Oat Flakes. I know, I know, it sound healthy and all that but holy cow it was yummy! There are entire LONG forum threads to be found if you google Fortified Oat Flakes, all of them bemoaning the loss of a truly tasty cereal.
(they don’t make Kraft Fudgies anymore either! *weeps*)
Nal
Looseners Castor Oil Flakes With Real Glycerine Vibrafoam. It’s the All-Weather Breakfast.
My two younger brothers and I just ate the “marshmallow treats” out of the box and threw the remainder away. We never ate it in a bowl with milk.
Lucky Charms? You’re a braver man than I. I always thought it was merely stale marshmallows. Have you tried the chocolate ones? As far as “kid’s” cereal, I prefer Sugar Crisps.
AH, They’re after me Lucky Charms! Methinks, they’re not so lucky then.
My 4 & 7 year old girls do the same thing – eat only the charms. Every time they promise, they’ll eat the whole enchillada, and every time it’s the charms only. Call me Charlie Brown, and yes, I will take a crack at kicking that football, Lucy.
I still by a box for myself now and then, and then my wife will eat ‘em. Crikey, it looks like the Leprechaun and I are in the same fix. They ARE after me Lucky Charms! Makes sense, I was born on St. Patrick’s Day.
Nothing comes close to the raw addictive power of Cracklin’ Oat Bran or Peanut Butter Captain Crunch.
Ah, Lucky Charms…the Alphabits upgrade! I loved ‘em, bits, kibble, carbs and all. Wish I had some RIGHT NOW!
I was one of those feakish kids who never liked sweetened cereal. Kix, Rice Krispies, Cheerios, Special K- that sort of stuff was fine. The worst of the worst was Quaker Life. That stuff made hunger appealing. Lucky Charms? bleah
JWM
Here’s a much better picture of the original Lucky Charms box:
http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/tic250.jpg
Plenty of other cereal boxes at the site too:
http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/cbarch
Quisp and Quake were my favorites. I couldn’t get enough of them. I actually preferred Quake, but they had a contest, and the loser had to go. Sadly, he lost, and so did I.
On the bright side, you can get Quisp again, and it is still super sweet saucer shapes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bUSt-JQdPg
And another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQqCNdaF3js&feature=related
I always felt sorry for the rabbit. I’m glad they brought back the old boxes.
http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2009/02/general-mills-retro-cereal-boxes.html
Hmmm…magic, foreigners with vast stores of wealth (pot o’ gold), secret knowledge, and a SIX-POINTED STAR!!! I smell an international conspiracy!
Lucky Charms is clearly a product of the Illuminati.
King Vitaman! Have Breakfast with the King! I had that bleeding gums problem with it too, but for some reason it was my favorite cereal too for awhile. All the sugar it contained probably helped reduce the swelling.
King Vitaman was a fav of mine, too and I remember my palette feeling like it was scrapped with glass encrusted sugar cubes.
Any Captain Crunch cereal was awesome, too. But my mom rarely bought either. It was usually Cheerios, Kix, Raisin Bran, or some Chex like creation. Strictly verboten were Fruit Loops, and Fruity or Cocoa Pebbles. All I remember was that they were “Pure Sugar” and would “Rot my Teeth” which makes me wonder why King Vitaman and Captain Crunch were ok once in a while. Maybe my mom had a soft spot for authority figures such as Kings and Navy Captains.
I never liked Lucky Charms because there were too few charms and too many lucky’s. My mom would make sure I ate the whole thing. I learned to ration the charms quickly.
I disliked the Kix ads. They had ones for the parents where the kid is smiling and going on about how wonderful it was. And the one for kids where they abuse the Rabbit. I remember the adult ad because I wondered how the kid could love eating that dry cardboard flavored stuff. Kix always struck me as a cereal that was made for adults but marketed for kids.
Back in the long-ago dream time of the 1950s, there was a cereal called Sugar Jets. I still miss it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN25QqWNu_Q
The only sugared cereal I liked was Captain Crunch and yes, there was the shredded mouth problem. Quisp cereal tasted like Captain Crunch but, was gentler on the mouth, they don’t make it any more.
Always a bit confused by the choices of shapes. Clovers, sure. Stars, yes; we’d heard of the lucky star. But moons? Hearts? Then blue diamonds? Where were the spades? How about horseshoes, rabbit’s feet, and the old ratty T-shirt you were wearing the night Emmy Lou let you get to second base?
Hey, they do still make Quisp, I’ll have to look for it.
bgbear:
Quisp, along with King Vitaman and Ka-boom can be found at hometownfavorites.com.
Not to get off the subject, but I have a killer recipe for Cap’n Crunch french toast. Can only make it on weekends, though. Eat it, let out a large sigh and go right back to bed.
Doesn’t anyone remember Mr. Wonderful’s Surpize? It had pudding inside it.
http://theimaginaryworld.com/tic585.jpg
Sugar Pops are tops.
The marshmallows in Lucky Charms are dehydrated. I just learned this recently. A friend of mine purchased a whole container of just the shrunken-mallows when she was in Branson. My problem with this cereal is this: I have a hard time stopping after just one bowl.
***Looseners Castor Oil Flakes With Real Glycerine Vibrafoam. It’s the All-Weather Breakfast.***
Remember that SNL commercial for “Colon Blow?”
I still laugh every time I see it.
I live about 15 miles from the actual town of Shillelagh. Home to the only remaining coppiced wood in Ireland.
“Oh, it ain’t no use if it ain’t got the boost -
the boost that you get from Looseners!
LOOSE-ners!”
The things you notice as an adult. I just figured out that the Quisp & Quake ads were done by Jay Ward. I know I’m a little slow, but then I haven’t watched these ads since childhood. They seem to have modeled Quisp on Jerry Lewis. Because eight year olds in 1965 were such big Jerry Lewis fans . . .
Ooo, Quisp and Quake, I’d forgotten about them, and I remember the competition. I like remembering things I’d forgotten.
Remember “Space Food Sticks”? this video brings back memories.
Am I the only one who finds the original Lucky far more superior to the more modern Lucky?
It seems like every few years they add another marshmallow. I remember my mom commenting one time that soon it would be all marshmallows and no cereal.
Other cereal mascots I remember include the stereotypical cop and robber duo for Cookie Crisp. The robber would always try to get the cereal, but the cop would always thwart him. Some time in the late 80s/early 90s, the robber had a canine accomplice, who always gave away their position by howling for Cookie Crisp. Now it’s a wolf trying to copy the rabbit.
Speaking of the rabbit, I remember reading on Wiki or somewhere that a couple of times the cereal company ran an election or poll where the kids decided whether or not to allow the rabbit to have a bowl. I think in most cases the rabbit won, but he would be allowed one spoonful, or only one bowl. I also remember a campaign where the kids took the rabbit to a hypnotherapist to cure him of his desire for Trix. To see if it worked, they locked him in a room filled with boxes and bowls of the cereal. Turned out the rabbit was faking by wearing swirly-eye glasses, which came inside each box of Trix. I think they were supposed to be X-Ray specs or something.
It looks like they brought back the retro Trix in more ways than one. Not only are they doing the retro boxes, but the cereal is round again, instead of the fruit shapes.
Mmmm, Fruit Loops and Apple Jacks are the only ones I remember from childhood, probably Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies, too. Corn Flakes used to gum up my teeth, though. Now I never eat cold cereal, just don’t like it. As a kid I liked the hot cereals better, we used to stir a spoonful of grape jelly into Cream of Wheat, turning it a disgusting grey/purple color. I still like hot cereals, but have stopped the jelly trick.
Does anyone else think the smell of Cheerios is nauseating? Or is it just me.
I remember King Vitamin!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60585948@N00/507709122/
The guy on the box bore a striking resemblance to my grandpa (and *now* he resembles my dad! How’d that happen?)
My parents used to humor me about that, and I vaguely remember saying things like “I’m going to get a bowl of Pop Pop cereal “, or “Pop Pop’s in the pantry!”.
Also, the Quaker Oats guy looked like my kindergarten bus driver, Mr. Porter.
Finally, as long as I’m revealing bizarre personal cereal trivia: my wife’s vanilla-bean-scented deoderant smells exactly like Cruch Berry cereal. Intoxicating!
Wow. I just saw a Firesign Theater reference.
I still eat Lucky Charms! Did you see they have retro boxes of it at Target?
I have always detested dry cereals, except for Shredded Wheat. I suspect that this tells more about my personality than I care to find out. I have not purchased a box of breakfast cereal in more than 3 decades. Its hot breakfasts or recently the Asian custom of soup for breakfast. Yum!
Wramblin’ Wreck
alan Says:
March 7th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Ooo, Quisp and Quake, I’d forgotten about them, and I remember the competition. I like remembering things I’d forgotten.
Remember “Space Food Sticks”? this video brings back memories.
I loved, loved, loved Space Food Sticks! Being a space program Junkie, I would have loved to have them with a glass of Tang!
[...] new favorite phrase. Don’t miss the 1950s original Lucky Charms commercial [...]
The only problem with Lucky Charms is that the generic equivalent, Magic Stars, is superior in every way. It’s more crisp. The Trix rabbit did get the Trix eventually when the company finally put it to a vote between the kids. Of course the kids chose to give the rabbit the Trix! They were sick of seeing him being denied. And thus the company ruined their long-running ad campaign for an entire generation.
A rabbi took a sabbatical and went on a solo round-the-world sailing adventure. One day, he made landfall on an island inhabitied by a tribe of pygmies who called themselves the Trid people. The only other resident on this island was a giant, who would periodically go on a rampage in the Trid village, tearing things up and kicking any villagers who got in his way. As he was a giant and they were mere pygmies, the Trids were powerless against him.
When he learned of the Trids’ plight, the rabbi became outraged. He marched up to the giant’s lair and began to rebuke him. “By what right do you bully and oppress these helpless people?”
The giant just smiled. “Silly rabbi! Kicks are for Trids!”
Like HunkyBob, I never got enough of the sweet cereal either. My parents always bought Cheerios, corn flakes, etc to ensure our “teeth didn’t rot” also. Once in a blue moon, we got Alpha Bits or Honeycomb. I loved Lucky Charms, ate the Charms first & the “luckies” last.
I also loved Crispy Critters…anybody remember that cereal? Sweetened cereal that came in the shape of animals. Aw, the simple pleasures of childhood…..
Yes and hooray! L C is my favorite non grown-up breakfast cereral also! My wife gets it for me, but only when it is on sale!! Have a nice day, everyone. Tory
I loved the original big-size shredded wheat. Great texture.
People, people, people. Crunchberries. Eat the Cap’n Crunch bits first and then savor the purple passion of the berries.
Whenever I smell a freshly-opened box of cereal, it takes me back to when I worked at a tool warehouse that stood downwind from the local General Mills manufacturing/packaging plant. Every morning and evening, that familiar smell of Cheerios, Lucky Charms, or Cocoa Puffs could be smelled within a one-mile radius of the plant.
The tool warehouse stocked a well-known brand of tool, and whenever I see those tools on a shelf or peg at any store, I instantly smell that familiar odor. Good memories it brings back, it does.
HAH! I can’t believe someone actually posted “Kicks are for Trids”. We loved the Jay Ward Quisp & Quake ads–especially the Quake ones, as he was kind of a macho construction-worker version of Dudley Do-Right. Best line: Quake has just put out some raging inferno and another character says something like, “He’s put out the fire! Know what that means?” And a disconsolate fireman(with, as I recall, a sort of Irish immigrant brogue) says, “Yeah–no weenie roast.” They were very odd little ads, sometimes.