Special Night

Break out the spoons.

Growing up, when me or my siblings asked my mom what was for dinner, sometimes we would get this response:

“Special Night.”

You might be wondering, what the heck is Special Night?

A family trip out to a restaurant? Pizzas delivered to the house? Fast food?

Nope, none of those things. It was when we had cereal for dinner.

My mom called it Special Night because the kids got to eat cereal for dinner (which made us happy) and she didn’t have to cook (which made her very happy).

Our staple cereals were Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Corn Chex, Wheaties, and Kix (and a few others that came and went). I have fond memories of Special Night… there was a feeling of excitement in eating breakfast food at night as we entertained ourselves by looking at the backs of cereal boxes.

When I was hungry back then, I would absolutely inhale my cereal. There was a lot of milk slurping and not much breathing in between spoonfuls. I’m sure it was an unpleasant sight for my mom.

Every once and a while, a special box of cereal would make an appearance in our cereal lineup… sugar cereal!

This was a thrill for us. The box of sugar cereal was instantly the most important thing in our lives.

At breakfast (or Special Night), when sugar cereal was available, the rule was nobody could have more than 2 bowls in a sitting. All of us watched each other like a hawk to make sure nobody was taking more than their fair share.

You could try to pull a fast one, but there was no way in Hell it was going to get by all of the other siblings.

The other way sugar cereal would show up at our house was when my dad would surprise us with a Kellogg’s mini 8-pack.

The four siblings would conduct a cereal draft to pick out 2 boxes each. Since I was the oldest, I usually got to go first.

We all had different favorite cereals, so the draft would work out for everybody… for the most part. Sometimes you could wind up with a draft bust that you didn’t want.

At one point, my mom conducted a cereal experiment with us. Each kid would receive a box of their favorite sugar cereal and it was up to us to manage our own box. There were no consumption limits and you also had the option of trading a bowl from your box for a bowl from your sibling’s box (if you wanted a variety of sugar). On the day we each got our boxes, we probably looked like proud parents in a newborn nursery.

Unfortunately, I had no self-control and my box was finished within 2 days.

My sisters and brother made their boxes last all week, so I felt tortured watching them feast on their sugary goodness while I ate my boring regular cereal.

Sometimes we would travel to Fort Wayne, IN to visit our cousins. At breakfast time, we opened their pantry closet doors and were blown away by the collection of sugar cereal they had. We thought we had won the lottery!

The jubilance quickly disappeared when we discovered that all of the cereal was stale. A true gut punch.

We could not (and still cannot) comprehend how someone could let (good) sugar cereal go stale. We would never let something so sad like that happen at our house! Frankly, with how fast we consumed cereal, it wasn’t even a possibility.

My own 2 kids are not as big of cereal fanatics as I was. In my house, we still have some of the same staple cereals that I had as a kid (Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Corn Chex). My girls will have an occasional bowl for breakfast, but they mostly eat other things like bagels and yogurt. Sadly, Special Night would not be special to them like it was for me. I guess they are spoiled with real food for dinners, but I think they don’t know what they’re missing!

Until next time,
Patrick

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