Looking back breakfast was always fun for some reason. Not complicated. Usually simple and quick but the food was enticing and fun unlike a lot of stuff we had to eat like tripe and finny haddock!
Breakfast food was aimed at kids pure and simple. It was kids food and boy did we appreciate the efforts of those cereal boffins who came up with those wonderful bowls of greatness. And don't forget the cool boxes and free gifts too!
Yep, brekkers was a blast.
My favourites were crunchy stuff like puffa puffa rice, coco pops and frosties. But to be honest I would have eaten any cereal in those days - except all bran of course!
An offshoot was pouring hot milk on cereals. It worked OK with Cornflakes and formed a sort of golden lava, which was really very warming on a winter's morning... or night! Hot milk and shredded wheat and weetabix worked too.
There was a home-made 'cereal' too, bread and milk. A half-way house between a sandwich and a cereal as hot milk was added to buttered chunks of white bread. The butter and the milk and sugar made for a delicious sweet oily broth and the soft bread just made it complete. Bread and milk was nectar, my all time fave food.
Beyond cereals there were other goodies like porridge, which I had on a plate with milk round the edge and sprinkled with salt. There were cuddlier versions of this like my fave, Reddy Brek, Central heating fir kids it said on the TV advert!
Toast was a staple too but it was more or less just marmalade or jam as a topping back then. No nutella or anything gooey like that. There were toast toppers but these were for tea as they contained meat stuffs and other chemicals.
Scotch pancakes were tasty. I think I liked them cold and straight out the packet. Pop tarts were a revelation but again I think these came later.
There was never time for anything grown-up like egg and bacon before school and my Mum worked on Saturdays. Not sure where my Dad and two brothers were then. Asleep? Work? Sundays everyone got up at different times so it was everyone for himself.
What was your breakfast of choice as a kid readers?
Breakfast in the late 40's early 50's on reflection seems to be a transitional time as tbe British breakfast as in what hotels now call A Full English Breakfast was a cooked affair. What was a still a new novelty was Corn Flakes.
ReplyDeleteThe selling point of cold cereals were the items printed on the backs of the packets which were series of aeroplanes and buildings that could be cut out and glued together.
Not long after the Coronation Kelloggs Sugar Frosted Flakes appeared. I don't think there was a kid in the country that could resist that for breakfast.
At some point plastic toys became the promotions and Quaker Sugar Puffs had a great line of small racing cars, There were models of ocean liners, hand guns, and Kelloggs had there versions of Crescent Toys Cowboys and Indians, a Guards Marching Band and Robin Hood. There were also Spacemen.
So depending on FREE GIFT Sugar Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes or Sugar Puffs were the favourite breakfast.
No amount of Biggles or The Lone Ranger promotions could make Weetabix attractive.
ha ha, poor old Lone Ranger and Biggles Terran. Post-War Rationing will have had an effect on the full English. Did it? That's a fascinating glimpse of how free gifts started. I remember cutting out the backs of cereal packets too. I recently bought a bag of old toy soldiers and I think there were some Crescent Marching Band in there.
DeleteSugar Puffs and Sugar Smacks fed my sweet toothed addiction and satisfied my taste for collecting plastic premiums and badges. Dunking biscuits also became a quick fix brekkie before school, Woodsy. I never warmed to porridge or Ready Brek though. Might be because my dad mentioned that when he was a squaddie in the forties, soldiers could expect porridge with salt (instead of sugar) for breakfast. Cor, they must've been made of tough stuff back then! :)
ReplyDeleteI ate my porridge with salt Tone. Still do. I wonder if my Parents introduced me to it, they both fought in the war. Oddly enough I like biscuits fr brekkers as well. Just eating two digestives with coffee now! I was impressed when breakfast biscuits were invented. The jam and cream sandwich biscuit is fabulous! ha ha, I like that "I never warmed to porridge!"
DeleteBlimey Woodsy, salt with your porridge as well... sounds like some sort of Shaolin Iron Gut conditioning to a former sweet-tooth kid like me, ha ha :D
ReplyDeleteShaolin Iron Gut! How did you know Tone? here's me with one of my students [nephew] after a bowl of salty porridge each! http://www.triangspacextoys.info/JackRBio/JRrec3RR.html
DeleteHave you sent the right link for 'Salty Porridge Shaolins', or was Jack R also a secret practitioner, Woodsy? :)
DeleteOops. Wrong post! Here's the right one ... I hope! http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2015/06/kung-fu-capers-at-powis-road-dojo.html
DeleteBrilliant - That's a fantastic fist full of memories you've got there, Woodsy. Amazing to read about and to see. Such a fun filled adventurous childhood. I've really enjoyed taking your trip back in time to the days when anything Kung Fu caught the imagination. Respect to you and your Dojo. Thanks for sharing this ace insight :)
ReplyDeleteYour welcome Tone. Its a subject I love to talk and write about. Its so long ago now but still seems like yesterday. I have tons of material from my time as a 'shaolin' too". There maybe a few more posts in it I reckon! Haiiii-ja!
DeleteThere were three main cereals that always had the best 'stuff' free with them: Sugar Smacks; Ricicles; and Puffa Puffa Rice. These were the ones that most often carried licensed artwork and gifts. I was getting through a pack of Sugar Smacks every couple of days to get a set of Captain Scarlet vehicles - and got my gran hookedvon Ricicles to get a set of something else. Happy days!
ReplyDeleteHappy Days for sure Brian! Are you still collecting Anderson toys and premiums like these?
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