My 5 Favorite Cereals When I Was A Kid

Ah, the good old days of childhood - in my case he late 50s and early 60s - when Dads went to work, Moms stayed home...and breakfast cereals were all refined grains and sugar coated. Wow! No wonder we could all ride our bikes and run around all day! Here is the list of my five childhood favorites, great with milk in the morning or straight out of the box any time during the day!

1) Cocoa Krispies A Kellogg's classic! Chocolaty, crunchy, and remember, this is the cereal that changed regular milk into chocolate milk! Hence, its solid status as the greatest of all time!

2) Sugar Frosted Flakes A cereal icon, to say the least! Tony the Tiger was absolutely right: They're great!

3) Cap'n Crunch A late comer to the kids' cereal scene, not introduced until 1963. But, the absolute best ever right out the box, bar none!

4) Sugar Smacks This classic cereal (still on sale as the healthier sounding Honey Smacks) would be ranked higher, but was covered with so much sticky sweetness that they'd clump together in the box after about a week. The 'on the cover' character was a cartoon ursine 'Sugar Bear', who's voice resembled singer Dean Martin. My Dad loved that!

5) Cheerios The only non-sweetened cereal on the list, so how great must they have been? Besides, it was the 50s, so every kid covered them with a minimum three teaspoons of sugar.

There ya go...my top five of all time! Four of the five would certainly be condemned by today's nutritionists, but think about this: If cereals back then were so unhealthy, why are there so many more 'chubby' kids today?