Things in my childhood that have been ruined with age, Chapter 1

Hello readers, after a long busy night at work, I am sat here with a cup of tea, my favorite way to unwind and enjoy the quiet. However, I find myself reflecting to times gone by, times when I was a mere boy, full of innocence, and boyish spirit, this all eroded around the time my hairline started to recede. The times when I were a boy were fun, not a care in the world, manys a baseball game played in the backyard, or a hockey game played on the road, we didn't have hockey sticks back then, we had to cut down the tree, and whittle it into a hockey stick, and that's the way we liked it. Another part of my childhood I held fondly were cereal commercials, the larger then life figures that adorned the cereal boxes would always entertain me, but it wasn't until I got much older ( and lot more cynical and jaded) that I saw these figures, these childlike heroes, for what they were, lets discuss just a few of them shall we.

* Tony the Tiger- ahh tony, you were the ever charismatic tiger that graced the boxes of frosted flakes. How could we ever forget your catchphrase "They're grrrrrrrreat." Little did I know at the time that these attempts to get kids to try your cereal was nothing more then peer pressure. I guess when he wasn't trying to get kids hooked on this stuff, you could find him stood on a street corner selling little baggies of the stuff. His catchphrase should have been "Frosted flakes, all the cool kids are eating them", Frosted flakes are truly a gateway cereal.

*The Trix Rabbit-now this is not so much a knock on him, so much as the kids that were in the commercial, the young boy in me thought it was kind of funny that they kept taking the cereal from the rabbit, yet age and wisdom has shown me what was really happening, a horrific case of bullying. If once, just once, that poor rabbit was allowed to have cereal, to fit in, maybe there would be less bullies in the world. Instead, I bet the Trix Rabbit grew up to not trust people, and me a totally strict dad to his hundreds of kids, as he could control them, unlike his lack of control over the cereal.

*the Mini Wheats Mini Wheat- while growing up and even today I enjoy is musical ads, often more appealing then the cereal, I figured out something about the mini wheat, while he looks all smiles and sunshine, he is obviously bi-polar. Sure we see the happy side in the commercials, what he calls the frosted side, but this sugary coating is used for more then taste, it is used as a mask, a mask to cover up the anguish and fears that overwhelm the plain side of the mini wheat. I can pictue the mini wheat at home, drowning his sorrows in the bottle, wishing that he could get the help he needs for his disorder, not to be paraded on television because of it.

*Lucky, the Lucky Charms Elf- While he seemed easygoing and even magical, I can now look back with certainty and say that Lucky was actually quite selfish. Kids are taught from a young age to share, yet whenever they came for his lucky charms cereal, Lucky would always try to run away and keep the cereal for himself. Sure, in the end the kids usually got the cereal, but it was often by force, and not cause of any goodwill from Lucky. Years later it was believed he joined the IRA, and became like an irish William Wallace, "YOU CAN TAKE MY LUCKY CHARMS, BUT YA CAN NAY TAKE ME FREEDOM."

I could go on and on, the Captain Crunch Captain, nothing more then a nefarious sea pirate, Toucan Sam, "the nose always knows" yeah about your likely cocaine problem, Count Chocula, c'mon he was a freakin vampire. Needless to say, that's why I stick with Cheerios, the bee never hurt anyone, cause if he did sting anyone, he would die, and dead bees don't sell cereal.