2020, Food, History, home, Media, TV, Uncategorized

Hoarding Grapenuts

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I am ashamed to admit it. This weekend I bought a box of Grapenuts when I didn’t need it.  I was hoarding.  It is all the fault of a recent news story that the Post company was having a hard time keeping up with demand for Grapenuts.  People are apparently snarfing them down at an increased rate due to staying home so much.  There is only one manufacturing plant for the cereal. It seems to require specialized manufacturing equipment on which the the Post company has a patent.  There have apparently been Grape nut shortages across the country,  and people are upset.

I don’t eat much cold cereal, but Grapenuts with milk and some golden raisins or currants are a big comfort food for me.  I shudder at the lurid colors of the cereals I ate as a child at the urging of commercials on Saturday  morning.

What were your favorite cereals as a child?  What would you hoard if you thought there might be a shortage?

61 thoughts on “Hoarding Grapenuts”

  1. I had to Google Grape Nuts! My favourite childhood cereal was Coco Pops, chocolate-covered puffed rice so delicious that my mum would only buy it very infrequently “because you all keep eating it”. I also loved Country Store which was a kind of muesli which had a super-healthy proposition – “apples, honey, hazelnuts, wheat, good things to eat” said the ad – but in fact was 99.8% sugar.

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  3. Post also offered Grape Nuts Flakes, sort of an oxymoron and curious in that they had no distinctive qualities whatsoever.

    When I was really young, none of the cereals were brightly colored but there were plenty of sugared ones. My friends and I all favored Kellogg’s Sugar Corn Pops (Sugar Pops are tops!), the sponsor of the Wild Bill Hickock show with Guy Madison and Andy Devine.

    I also liked Jets, which were a sweetened ball-shaped cereal like
    Kix but not corn based and Sugar Crisp, another Post cereal, I think.

    Of the non-sweetened cereals, there were Cheerios and Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes and Post Toasties (also corn flakes) and Quaker Puffed Wheat and Rice, which were shot from guns, apparently. Quaker had the all-time greatest promotion in their boxes- a deed for a square inch of land in the Yukon. This was at a time when Sergeant Preston of the Yukon was popular on television. The whole story of the promotion Is a great one:
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Big_Inch_Land_Promotion

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  4. I love Grape-Nuts. This means I have to put it on my shopping list for the next trip although I think I have a little bit left in the box in the cabinet. Grape Nuts Flakes are OK, they’re not very sweet, which is why I like them. But I like Grape-Nuts much more.

    I’m not big on hoarding because I don’t have a lot of room for hoarding but I will admit that I’m not paying a whole lot of attention these days and we’ve ended up with three big jars of crunchy peanut butter in the cabinet. I swear it was an accident.

    It’s easy to see how hoarding happens. Right before everything shut down last March I stopped on the way home from work at Target to pick up a couple of things. Hand wipes and toilet paper had already been in the news but I was surprised to see people carrying big packs of paper towels with them in the store. A massive display in the middle aisle was clearly shrinking rapidly. I knew I didn’t need paper towels but seeing everyone grabbing them really made me feel like I should too. I didn’t end up doing it but it was a good lesson on how quickly you can get into a hoarding mindset.

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  5. Because I hate milk, cold cereals were never very tempting. I was briefly a fan of Red River, a “steel-cut” cereal endorsed by hippie friends. It wasn’t bad if you loaded your bowl with cut up bananas and strawberries, but I gave up Red River when I gave up marijuana.

    I can’t imagine raising a toddler without Cheerios, the old fashioned unsweetened kind. When my daughter ate in her high chair, Cheerios were the only healthy food she liked. Happily for everyone, she liked “Chee-ohs” a LOT. Our springer, Brandy, curled up under the high chair because my daughter’s enthusiastic dining style resulted in a shower of Cheerios raining down. We used to say, “A Chee-oh doesn’t bounce twice in this place,” and it was true.

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    3. Cheerios was the reason that my Irish setter, Scarlet, decided that Baby was OK. The first six months, Scarlet would get up and leave the room if I brought Baby in. Baby never pulled her tail, never climbed on her, never tortured her in anyway but Scarlet was just not having anything to do with her. Until we hit the one year mark and solid food and Baby started to liberally sprinkle the floor with Cheerios. From then on Scarlet was her best friend.

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    4. I may have had the only toddler who did not like Cheerios. Ms S could not abide them. Other ring-shaped things, sure. But not Cheerios. There were other puffed things she would eat – something about the texture of Cheerios in particular that offended, it seems.

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  6. Still can’t hit the stars to like…guess someone has to ‘allow’ me.

    We had hot cereal every morning before school and cold cereal on weekends…my mom was not a cook. Sugared cereals were for our camping trips or whe we cam to my grandparents cabins in the summer. My favorite was Sugar Pops…’tho so how it lost its appeal as I grew older. I make breakfast bars now to have with morning coffee so I suppose I hoard cinnamon…maybe Ghirardelli cacao chips.

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        1. I have the same issue on this one particular Mac laptop. I can comment but can’t “like”. But on my phone or any other computer, it all works fine.

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        2. Unfortunately I can’t hit a button and make it work better for you. Word press is very mysterious. If I open it in a browser I can like the post but I can’t like the comments after that. If I opened it in the app there’s no way to like the post but I can like all the comments. I think I’d start to worry if it starts to make sense to any of us.

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  7. I rarely eat cold cereal now and when I do, it’s almost always plain old Cheerios – with a lot less sugar than I used as a kid. We were kind of a traditional cereal family – Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Wheaties (for Dad), and Grape Nuts. Occasionally we would add a Chex cereal or Shredded Wheat (which required an inordinate amount of sugar to be palatable). And I went through a phase of loving Life cereal, just like Mikey! In the winter we added Cream of Wheat or Malt-O-Meal. I think that was a ploy by Mom to get us out of bed and to the breakfast table. When she hollered up to us that breakfast was ready, we rushed downstairs before the cereal got cold and lumpy. I hated oatmeal as a kid but really like it now, especially with fresh berries added.

    In my small place, there is no room for hoarding and I don’t like clutter. I do have a small storage cupboard in my garage where I keep extra toilet paper, paper towels, and food storage bags, and that is mainly so I don’t have to shop for those items so often.

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    2. We are definitely hot cereal gals around here. Ralston hot cereal is still my favorite even though I have to order it online. But we also like cream of wheat and malt o meal and even cream of rice.

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  9. Rise and Eat Your cereal Baboons,

    We were not allowed any sugary cereals at our house as children, (Or cartoons, comic books, or playing pinball machines in arcades). Grape Nuts, Cheerios, oatmeal, Malt o Meal, corn flakes and Life were on the allowed lists, though, so we ate a lot of those. Now and then we had sugar cereal at a friend’s house for breakfast after a slumber party, but that was it.

    So when I went to college and ate in the cafeteria, they had Cap’n Crunch Which.I.Loved and ate every morning for a period. Then I discovered the nightmare of the 10 am sugar crash (the hypoglycemia shakes and sweats) which then modified that cereal preference and I gave it up.

    My mom was right about that one.

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        1. OK, Smarty Pants. I meant in jugs in case our water system is contaminated which happens with flooding or tornadoes. I think it is a hold over from my parents farm days.

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      2. As I’ve mentioned before, husband is currently at Will’s homestead near Ely. There’s no running water, so each day he has to fill several plastic pails and tubs with snow, take them inside his cabin to melt to have water for washing, cooking, and drinking.

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  10. I was a cereal junkie as a kid. Three heaping bowls every morning unless Mom made pancakes or something. All-time fave is Cheerios (and the only cereal I might hoard). I also love Wheaties, Wheat Chex, Life, and still eat those occasionally. I eat cereal twice a week nowadays.

    As a kid, I loved but no longer eat Cap’n Crunch, Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs, Applejacks, Froot Loops, Cocoa Crispies (I was so amazed that they turned the milk to chocolate milk . . . right in the bowl!), Sugar Pops, and probably a bunch of other now-defunct cereals. IF they were pre-sweetened, I’d eat it. Or I’d dump a bunch of sugar on unsweetened cereal. To this day I’m amazed I don’t have diabetes. 🙂

    I don’t have a hoarding mentality, although we shop at Costco and certainly “stock up” when we buy a 24-pack of toilet paper for the two of us. I guess toilet paper would be an important thing to have enough of. We have enough food stored or preserved or frozen to feed us for at least 3 months so I don’t worry much about a short-term supply. Maybe I’d stockpile some gas for the car and lawnmower, but if there’s a crisis, mowing the lawn won’t be a high priority.

    Not a bad idea to have a lot of cash on hand in case the fiat-electronic financial system crashes and burns.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  11. My favorites were Sugar Pops and and Sugar Crisp (with the bear), and Sugar Frosted Flakes (with Tony the Tiger – They’re G-r-r-r-eat!) In the 70s sugar began to get a bad rap, and the names have been changes, but they’re still out there – Corn pops, Golden Crisp, and Frosted Flakes. We didn’t get them all the time, and I remember getting those 10-pack mini boxes and fighting over them.

    Garrison had a “sponsor ” on PHC reminiscent of what Steve was talking about – I think it was called Raw Bits?

    I do still like Special K, and any kind of Cheerios, and the Chex cereals… I always wished they’d make a box of mixed chex, so you could make Chex Mix without buying 3 separate boxes of Chex – what was it, Wheat, Rice, and Corn?

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  12. And then there’s Calvin…
    https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=calvin+and+hobbes+chocolate+frosted+sugar+bombs&fr=yhs-trp-001&type=Y179_F163_202595_082420&hspart=trp&hsimp=yhs-001&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbycommonconsent.files.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fchocolate-frosted-sugar-bombs.gif#id=0&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbycommonconsent.files.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fchocolate-frosted-sugar-bombs.gif&action=click

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  13. I was raised on plain oats sprinkled with a little sugar and milk, but cooked only during the winter months. Once in a blue moon, mom would buy a box of cornflakes, and that was a real treat, as was a slice of toasted French bread with jam. The profusion of cereal choices that you see in supermarkets today were simply not available during my early childhood. Certain food items were still rationed when I started school in 1950.

    Later on cereals rice Rice Crisipes and Wheat Puffs became part of our breakfast choices. I rarely ever eat cereal now, though I always have some steel cut oats on hand in case I get a craving for oatmeal.

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    1. There are Pepperidge farm Goldish cookies available in some stores. The ones I like are fudge brownie, which are available in a few stores. More retailers have a version called S’mores, which include little marshmallow bits similar to the ones they put in Lucky Charms. I bought the S’mores cookies once, and wouldn’t get them again, because I didn’t know they were going to include those little fake marshmallow pieces. Who really likes those, anyway? I do like real marshmallows, but those little marshmallow imposters do not appeal at all.

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  15. My mom disliked cooking, having not done it until she got married. (Her mother was an excellent cook who prided herself on being the boss in her kitchen.) Mom finally learned to make acceptable 1950s lunches and suppers. (A lot of hot dishes followed by Jello for desert.) Breakfast was strictly DIY. One year I made cinnamon toast for myself every morning.

    Any time I objected to something my mother served my parents invariably threatened me, “Just wait until you get in the army! You’ll weep to remember your mom’s cooking.” When I went off to college I had to eat whatever the food service put out. My buddies buddies griped about that. Me, I thought I’d gone to an eater’s heaven.

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  17. I liked a lot of cereals as a kid, and I’m sure I ate a lot of the sugary ones. I love Grape Nuts. Who came up with that name? They’re not grapes. They’re not nuts.

    I also remember the sampler packs that you could buy of little boxes of assorted flavors. The boxes had a dotted line on the face, and you could supposedly open them up along that dotted line and pour milk right into the little box. I don’t think I ever tried that.

    Now when I buy cereal, it’s usually original Cheerios, Kix, corn flakes, Corn Chex, Raisin Bran, or Rice Krispies. Or the store brand versions of those. Hot cereal – Cocoa Wheats, or straight up oatmeal.

    There was a cereal I liked called Quaker 100% Natural Cereal. I think it morphed into something else. Or maybe discontinued. It was a granola-type thing they had when granola 100% first became popular.

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    2. I loved the little boxes. This is something that my Nana had on hand all the time for when the grandkids visited. She also had a second fridge in the basement, mostly for my grandfathers beer and tonic but there were also several kinds of pop there. It was like going on vacation to go to her house..

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    3. We would get those little assorted packs when we went on road trips (usually once a year, give or take). My brother and I would fight over the inevitably odd-numbered sugared cereal options. Depending on how quickly my mom wanted to move out in the morning, we would either carefully slit open the boxes and wax paper and eat right in them, or she would get out the camping bowls and we would use those if we were having a more leisurely breakfast in whatever motel we were staying at (often a Motel 6). Except for the trips where Mom would buy one box we all had to share – that was usually Wheaties or Team.

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  18. Evening-
    I ate a lot of Cap’n Crunch. And Honeycombs was a favorite. At some point Honeycombs became “new and improved” and I didn’t like the taste anymore. I remember mom and dad would have Grape Nuts. Or Shredded Wheat. Those buns kinda fascinated me. But who would eat a cereal that looked like dried up grass??

    I really liked Quisp, but mom wouldn’t buy it often because it was a little box so it didn’t go far. One year for Christmas, Kelly bought me a CASE of Quisp; and that was about the best present ever!

    One of my nephews made a comment one day that it was a special day on the farm when Grandma let him have Quisp for breakfast. I’m sure I didn’t like giving up a bowl to that little twerp! Even if I did like the nephews.
    Trix was good. Kix too. Once in a while rice crispys. Maybe corn flakes.

    These days it’s Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and sometimes Corn Chex.

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  19. Sometimes we just forget what we have at home and end up with 4 boxes of mashed potatoes or chicken broth or garbage bags or 3 tubes of toothpaste… not intentionally hoarding.
    Would a basement full of wine be considered hoarding or a collection?

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    1. Depends… is the wine in bottles or is it Franzia boxed wine? If it’s the former (even if it’s Sutter Home), I think it can be a collection. Boxed wine… well, that gets a little dicier.

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  20. At the start of the pandemic when Lysol wipes were nowhere to be seen and hand sanitizer was as rare as pro-choice Republican, Husband bought liquid hand soap whenever he went out. Didn’t matter the brand, just bought some. Never the refill size, just more bottles with non-recyclable pumps in them. I cut him off I think in early April and said we really didn’t have space for more. I just brought out the last bottle of the stuff that he bought ‘lo those months ago. And that’s after bringing over a bottle or two to my mom…

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