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That's Just the Sugar Talking!
15 Plays2 months ago
Josh and Tyler get to the core of a Gen X Saturday morning, the nourishment. That would be crunchy, fortified, mouth shredding, blood spiking shapes of wheat and sugar with puzzles on the box for us to solve while we ate. Sweet, sweet cereal. Literally. If it glistened in the sun and came in a box with animated characters that were featured in their own 60 second shows, we knew the taste, sang the jingles and begged mom for more. We Yabba'd the Zonkers out of those Zoinkin' bits!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
Remember those variety packs with the tiny boxes that you could pour the milk directly into? Never did that. There was always one box of all-brand. What kid ate those?
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to Yabba Zunker's Winx, the Saturday morning podcast where your host, Josh Downing, that's me, will yap with guests about their awesome Gen X childhood know in front of the TV in pajamas eating bowls of crunchy sugar.
00:00:26
Speaker
I'm a Gen Xer, toy collector, theater creator, well and now I'm a podcast host with a series on pop culture stuff from the 70s and 80s, like cartoons and toys and TV shows. So if you remember the Jetsons or HR Puff and Stuff or even the Groovy Gooleys, well you're on the right channel. So put on your fluffy slippers and your cowboy pajamas and join us on a Saturday morning ride through our childhood.
Childhood Cereal Favorites
00:00:51
Speaker
Thanks Cruella from Vancouver for leaving that comment on our Gen X for Life podcast Facebook page. Looking forward to hearing more from you. So welcome back listeners. My name is Josh and I'm your host. And with me today is Tyler. Hey everybody.
00:01:07
Speaker
So great to have you back. We're hopefully been having fun listening to the episodes. Um, I know I've heard them multiple times, but most of that's just my editing. So today, today's episode is called that's just the sugar talking. And so I guess you can guess by now what we're going to be talking about. We are going to be talking about cereal because there wasn't Saturday morning without cereal.
00:01:30
Speaker
So we're going to be talking about cereal because apparently people really loved their Saturday morning cereal. So there was a lot of really great comments from people on our social media. um So Cruella also wrote that flos frosted flakes were great. ah Tracy wrote that she loved Rice Krispies, get this, with two scoops of sugar oh and a banana.
00:01:55
Speaker
Oh, Tracy, let's see that smile. yeah Oh, man. And then Kathy wrote. She loved prairie made puffed wheat and frosted flakes. We'll put that together. Good on you for the frosted flakes. you know Puffed wheat was one of those things that sat in that plastic bag in our cereal cupboard and it was the always the, um all we have left is puffed wheat. So we have nothing. Exactly. If it didn't have a mascot, throw it out.
00:02:27
Speaker
Right. If there's no toy in the bag, what was the point? Correct. Marco also wrote on Instagram that Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, and Cookie Crisps were his favorites. Oh, he's a little younger, isn't he? Yeah, quite quite a bit younger. Cookie Crisps. But he just loves Honey Shreddies. I love Shreddies. Yeah, Shreddies I get. I don't think I've ever had Honey Shreddies. They're really sweet. But are we going to talk about all those black hole premiums that came with Shreddies? Anyway, carry on.
00:02:57
Speaker
No, cause it'll make you cry. You go Canada. And Ben wrote Golden Grahams. And I wasn't a fan of Golden Grahams because they got soggy really fast. Well, were they here in Canada? Yeah. Oh, cause I was going to say, I remember the ads. I don't remember the serial being here.
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah, I remember the cereal. It was ah always a race to get through it before the alternative to mush. Yeah, not not a favorite for me. It's not golden mush. yeah Well, it is if you don't hurry up.
Mini Cereal Boxes and Camping Memories
00:03:31
Speaker
Bring on those additives. So so I have to go back to the those little boxes because those little boxes in our house,
00:03:39
Speaker
were what we called camping cereal. Because that's the only time we ever really got it. So we did a lot of our camping um in Bellingham. So just outside of Bellingham, ah because we lived on out in the West Coast. So we would get a lot of our groceries down in the US.
00:03:58
Speaker
So those variety packs were really quick and easy for my mom to grab and load up in the trailer on her way down. And b beautiful. Those packs were incredible. They were just amazing. They were like Christmas. Yeah. care the The fun with those boxes was that we got to take a steak knife and slice the box open. Well, it was more like sawing it open.
00:04:22
Speaker
So we could peel back the front of the box and then pour the milk right in and eat it around the campfire. But you had to pull the paper part to the liner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It makes you cut both things so that you didn't just pour the milk in the box. But they had all those wicked sugar cereals in those packs in the States, whereas here it was just six packs of like raisin bran.
00:04:47
Speaker
It was Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, all brand buds. Oh, I like cornflakes. But yeah, there was nothing, there was no sugar smacks or no you know whatever. Anyway, no, not at all. so So what was your Saturday morning favorite cereal?
00:05:06
Speaker
Uh, it was probably alphabets. It was probably rice Krispies. It was probably special K not very exciting. Um, but we didn't have the sugar cereals in the house. And I remember one box of count chocolate coming into the house when I was three. And man, do I remember exactly what that tasted like? It was good.
00:05:29
Speaker
It doesn't taste like that today. And poo honeys, there was one box of that that came into the house. And I think that was probably because of the little Winnie the Pooh caddy. And my mom probably just wanted me to have that. But otherwise it was pretty tame until Pac-Man cereal. And for some reason I was allowed to have that with all the marshmallows.
00:05:53
Speaker
Um, and I kind of liked it, of course she did but yeah, for the most part, uh, we never had, you know, we had raisin brand. Actually, it was kind of a funny story. We had crispy wheats and raisins. Do you remember that? No. Okay. So crispy wheats and raisins was just, it was, um, like raisin brand, but it was a us one that suddenly was here. oh Every time I would open a new box and you know, you open the bag, I would get this headache rush when I would open the bag.
00:06:23
Speaker
So it's like, oh, I'm nauseous now, like crispy pizza and raisins. And then every time it was time to open a new box, I'm like, uh-oh, here we go. Rip, rush. Oh, I gotta lie down. Oh no. No, that was in the sugar. Like God knows, like it was probably off gassing, something horrible. All these little children lying on the ground at home on Saturday night. I know, I know. But yeah, we, we never really had the sugar cereals.
00:06:48
Speaker
So I was pretty, pretty, I don't know, was it wasn't very exciting, but things like Frosted Flakes. Wow. yeah Like that'll wake you up. They were amazing. So in our house, that was Mum's cereal.
00:07:05
Speaker
Really? Yeah. So that was special for mom. We weren't supposed to eat it. Of course we did, yeah but that was supposed to be mom cereal. So we always had to make sure that mom got at least a mom. Yeah. And so it was it was magical because it was one of those forbidden things. It was like, don't eat the frosted flakes. Oh my gosh. With that judging tiger on the box, these are not for children. For me, not you. Oh, that's so funny. Funny. And then dad's cereals were like the all bran and the the bran flakes and the Wheaties. Do you remember Wheaties? Yeah. And my dad liked those, those like rolled hay bales. That's Wheaties. Yeah. And you had to, you had to pour hot water on them oh and milk and then dump a bunch of sugar on them. Why did you marry this man?
00:07:56
Speaker
oh That's up gross. And I tried it because sometimes it was the only thing in the house. Yeah. And then they had that for a while, you know, where it was like, this is the frosted side and this is the nasty side. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that was spoon size too. Maybe I'll lick this size side and put it back in the box. But and anyway, oh yeah, dads are weird.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yep. That was dad's thing. Wow. Yeah. I don't get that. I wouldn't even want that today. No, no. Well, yeah, no, it it was one of those things where it was like, you know, having an, uh, like an oatmeal that we could make ourselves. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, cause we could just use hot water from the tap, right? To get our cereal nice and soggy. Yeah. Yeah. And then I think we had, um, we had Weedabix once probably from one of our shops down in the U S.
00:08:49
Speaker
Well, it was probably, you know, the the companies trying to provide some kind of decent alternative, you know, but remember like when we would run to the states in the nineties and everything had a serial, like every, every, like every possible license.
00:09:07
Speaker
you know It wasn't just like, oh yeah, here we are. It's America. They've got this and that. like It was just crazy.
Cereal Industry Insights
00:09:13
Speaker
yeah like Everybody had a cereal, you know the tick, Powerpuff Girls, Scooby-Doo. Everybody had a cereal. It's like, wow, this is wild. like How did they even come up with flavors? Not that that matters probably, but it's just amazing how it evolved from just you know, for flavors on the shelf to just massive aisles, you know, like the markup and the margin just must be phenomenal. I assume I don't know. Oh, it is actually, it's funny. I was doing, when I was doing some research for this topic, uh, the, the average, um, margin on like cereal is about 50%.
00:09:55
Speaker
Well, that's pretty decent. And that's pretty high in the, in the food business. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. that's Because it was, it's just some kind of wheat and then sugar and then a licensing. They must be shipping that to stores like every other day. Cause there's only so much that can fit on the shelf. And if it's flying, you know, you're just constantly replenishing that and it's just margin, margin, margin. Exactly.
00:10:20
Speaker
so So another interesting fact about cereal, you're saying like, so how many you could go in and see ah between 1970 and 1998 in the US, the number of different types of cereal doubled and it doubled to 340.
00:10:39
Speaker
wow In 2012, there were about 5,000 types of cereal and in the US, 5,000. I bought a carton of Quisp, like early 2000s. And I was so excited. I'm like, wow, I'm getting six boxes of Quisp, right? With the beautiful graphics on the box, tore that carton open from the States and ripped it open. I'm like, oh, this cereal is horrible.
00:11:10
Speaker
Of course. I was so upset. I'm like, but the mascot's adorable and your box art is beautiful and, and barf. But too late. We've got your money. Exactly. Oh, buyer's remorse. Yeah. No kidding. So I mean, like you think about it too.
00:11:28
Speaker
We were a target audience. We were sitting in front of TV for three or four hours every Saturday morning and then every day after school. And we were just pounded senseless with these cereal commercials. I used to love the sugar crisp cereals. Your grandma or whoever the the character was. like You know, they were on repeat, right? But sugar crisp actually sugar crisp is one that we did have in the house I wonder why and she did every once in a while Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of, well, it was kind of just rice, right? It was the puffed wheat. Yeah. didnt sugar Yeah. But there was just something cool about Sugar Bear. Yes. Who had his own record anyway with Kim Carnes, but anyway, um, Sugar Bear and his car, you know, racing around, I'm like, Oh, this is so exciting. gotbble Gobble, gobble, gobble. That's so awesome. so here's here's ah Here's an interesting fact about Sugar Bear.
00:12:26
Speaker
Sugar Crisp was actually the very first sugary cereal, very first cereal to actually have an animated TV commercial. And that was back in 1949. Wow. So, and it featured three bears, Handy Dandy and Candy. And then eventually they just became Sugar Bear.
00:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. We'll just cut right to the chase, right? Right. It's so funny that sugar was in the title. And I always thought it was wild how apparently parents were always concerned that their kids were never eating. that
Cereal Box Prizes and Nostalgia
00:12:58
Speaker
my My kids won't eat. My kids won't eat. So they'll eat this because it's got sugar on it. So, you know, thank you for saving the day.
00:13:06
Speaker
And like I was a kid that had no problem eating, but, you know, I always found that strange that that was sort of the fix, you know, it's like, don't worry moms, you know, there's sugar on this. So your kid will eat it. Oh, thank you. Thank you. You know, anyway. And remember how everything was fortified, right? I only know that word because of cereal. It says it's got eight different vitamins, but I think it's just got four different sugars.
00:13:33
Speaker
Yes, well, they're just waved around the box so they can put it on the label. yeah That's awesome. OK, I'm going to shake the speaking of cereal. I'm going to shake this cereal box. Cause we got to figure out what we're talking about here too. There's, where's my shake. There's the good captain, right? Captain right there with a crunch berries. Okay. Sorry. Can I interrupt? You sure can. The first time I went to overnight day camp when I was a little kid, yeah that's when I realized how much kids freaked out over cereal because they were all freaking out over honeycomb and captain crunch.
00:14:03
Speaker
two cereals I'd never, ever had before. And these kids were like manic in the morning. And this is like grade three, I guess, for me, you know, and just, and brown sugar, brown sugar on everything um and cap and crunch. It was like, get out of the way. These kids are ravenous for it. And I was like, Oh, that's really interesting. And I don't know that I ever did have.
00:14:25
Speaker
either of those cereals and honeycomb was a massive marketing yep machine on Saturday mornings. we' We're always going to the honeycomb hideout, but I have no idea what your cereal tastes like, but your bell bottoms are awesome. Honeycomb is actually my favorite cereal. Is it still on the market? i I want to say yes, but I'm probably wrong.
00:14:48
Speaker
I have like, I really don't know. Was it a sugary cereal or was it a honey cereal? It was, um, it was a strange cereal because it was one of those mouth shredders because they were really big. So they were born like, they were these giant wagon wheels and they were like super stiff styrofoam covered in sugar.
00:15:10
Speaker
And I loved them. oh ah They were so good. They they weren't super sugary. i don't I mean, what did they taste like? They tasted like sugar. it's It was just kind of a fluffy corn that had been sort of puffed and then hardened and then dipped in sugar oh my god and had the best marketing ever. And the biggest reddest you know honeycomb hideout box ever. Well, that was the blood from all the children who were eating it. Just blood everywhere.
00:15:41
Speaker
Seriously, or the bloodshot eyes from all the sugar. Yeah, maybe, yeah. All right, so here's our topic today. What was your best prize inside your cereal? What was the one that you coveted or had or loved the most? All the ones I would have coveted would have been the ones on TV that we never had here. I was fascinated by all those baking soda submarines and stuff. I'm like, what is that? like That's literally a toy.
00:16:10
Speaker
You know, it's not a a pencil caddy or some Canadian crap. you know it's a tar where you mean They were like, Oh yeah. Oh, oh, and now hold on. well i'm Well, okay. Hold on. Okay. Thank you for saying that because the honest answer would be Kellogg's had a run.
00:16:29
Speaker
with Josie and the Pussycats where there were the pencil toppers and also the figural spoons. So that is my answer. Thank you for tearing my memory. I don't know why I wouldn't have remembered that. um But yeah, my honest answer was all those cool little toys. Like they were literally toys, you know, and I guess it was Captain Crunch is how I remember it. All those baking soda submarines, and they were all just going underwater. And I'm like, what is that? You know, you you know it's funny. We, we talked about this before as well. Those, those, uh, diving baking powder submarines, but you know, those were actually the toys that were available in British cereals. I thought you were going to say those were actually poisonous.
00:17:14
Speaker
Unpacked. Only if you ate them. Yeah. know yes So that's what the British kids were getting, which is kind of weird. That's also what we got. Because they were always going to war. Yeah. So they they had things like little divers, they had little sharks with rotating tails. um They had little boats, little catamarans with balloons. Remember that? That was the Shreddy's toy I just remembered. It was a catamaran with a balloon on top.
00:17:39
Speaker
So you put the balloon and you blow it up and he put the whole thing on the water and it it would propel. I do remember that. Oh my goodness. That just right there. Memory just came right back. Wow. Catamaran and collecting cards. So yeah, we it's weird. We got the British toys.
00:17:57
Speaker
Well, I like, I loved how there were the records, but they're a little bit before my time, but yeah that's awesome. Um, the mailaways were always super cool, you know, too good to be in the box. So send away for these. Um, I was pretty jazzed when shreddys had all that black hole stuff. You know, um, I always felt bad for all the other kids cause I thought, Oh, you probably hate this, but I'm loving it.
00:18:20
Speaker
and And of course we would drag that out forever here in Canada. Those premiums are probably around for like three years. I never did collect everything, but I certainly tried. I seem to remember those love bug stickers. Do you remember that? Like Disney's love bug, Herbie, um, in Shreddy's too. Uh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but what about you?
00:18:44
Speaker
So that brought up another memory because there was also, and it was probably Shreddy's toy, there was an elastic band wind up, Herbie the Love Bug car. Whoa. Yeah. You knew that. Yeah. I'm like, wait a minute. That that ring a bell right there. So I would have loved that too. I think it would have been in all the official Herbie colors, like purple, if it's green, orange. Just like the movies. And they were too black. Yes, exactly. But white ones. Yeah. White was too expensive. Yeah. Yeah. No striping.
00:19:20
Speaker
So I loved the spoon hangers, those little Winnie the Pooh characters that hung off the side of your ball. Yeah, that's what my mom loved. having That one box, you had a blue Winnie the Pooh. Yes. Yeah. great Once again, not the right color. But, you know, who cares? It's Winnie the Pooh. That's right. But I guess that's how, you you know, collect them all. Right. Right. Get them started when they're young.
00:19:43
Speaker
um But that that wasn't my absolute favorite. I think that the strangest thing is, and I can't even tell you what this toy actually was, but it was a red and bread and blue plastic disc. And I think you were supposed to make some kind of spinner or something with it and you would put it over a picture and the picture would look 3D. Okay.
00:20:10
Speaker
And I quickly forgot all that and just ran around the house with these two pieces of plastic over my eyes going, Oh my God, everything's 3d. And I loved that thing. And I don't even know what it was in my brain. I think it was something to do with.
00:20:24
Speaker
Peter Pan, but I'm like, what Peter Pan thing would have been around at that time? Probably wouldn't have mattered. It didn't matter. It didn't matter. I didn't care. But like, okay, so here's a question other than I hope you didn't run up and down the stairs with those things. We didn't have stairs. I was an only kid. So the prize was mine. Yeah. That's a loaded sentence. Um, but with you having two siblings and one box of cereal with one prize, was there really any issue or Oh yeah. okay Every Saturday there was an issue.
00:20:55
Speaker
but And it it really came down to who got up first. Okay. Which was usually me. Uh-huh. So, uh, I would quickly run to the kitchen and grab that cereal box. There was times when I would just open it when mom bought the groceries. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Which was just, I was just awful. I was an awful kid. I'm sure you weren't, but like, isn't it funny how far down in the box those things were? Like were, aren't they just really small? No, no, they were always at the bottom of the box.
00:21:26
Speaker
And then you'd have to like sort of like push the box, like puff the box out. You know what I mean? And I'm like, I still can't find this damn thing. You know, I know it's in there. My technique was I just yanked the bag right out of the box. and And if it wasn't in the bottom of the box, I would just dig through and I could see where it was. Maybe you were awful. Collars like it was awful. And so, of course, if I didn't like the toy,
00:21:52
Speaker
Then yes, I could, you know, here you can have this. So kind, so generous. I know. yeah So terrible. the But like it's hard. Like, you know, it's not like we had tons of money and mom could buy like three different kinds of cereal for each of us. Yeah. But I would just think like, I guess I just thought everything was just for boys. You know, I think a lot of times it was. Yeah. Like, does the girl really want that? You know, they want barrettes, right? They don't want a deep sea submarine. Exactly. But maybe they do. Maybe they did. and mean They just forgot one because their brother's always got it. Yeah, maybe. Oh, he wants it. Then I definitely want it. yeah That's more like it. I don't want you to have it. So it's mine.
00:22:34
Speaker
So, so I found out some, uh, some other really interesting info about the prize inside. So Kellogg's Cornflakes actually was the first to kind of really introduce that prize inside. And it was around 1905 and it was a book. And if you bought two boxes of cereal, they would give you a book and it was called the funny jungle land moving pictures book.
00:22:56
Speaker
Okay. That's a mouthful. Right. know And then they did it, they changed it from giving it away at purchase to mail in with a dime. So you tape a dime to a piece of cardboard and send it in. and Yeah, because you think about that. A dime plus, you know, your two cents for a stamp. Holy crap. And then you'd have to wait six to eight weeks. Yeah.
00:23:19
Speaker
But they did this and they moved more than two and a half million of these books. Isn't that something? Isn't that nice? They must have just thought like, wow, what, you know, what have we stumbled onto here? Yeah. Yeah. What did, what did we like roll out for everyone going forward? That was the first home shopping channel.
Modern Cereal Habits and Slogans Game
00:23:39
Speaker
That was the first Amazon purchase.
00:23:43
Speaker
Invented by Kellogg's cornflakes. They stopped this around 1937. Cause they made enough money. We don't need to keep going. where We gave away enough free things for 10 cents. They were probably making huge profit off that book too at 10 cents. And they barely changed it over the years either. Like they did they they didn't do very much to it. They just kind of kept it in print. So yeah, isn't that weird? It is goes right back. Wow.
00:24:13
Speaker
All right. So, wow. Cereal. Who knew we had so much to talk about cereal, but like I said, it just, it was burned into our little brains and absolutely and our veins. Yes, that too. But do you eat cereal today?
00:24:29
Speaker
Yeah, actually I do. I avoid the sugary one. So I eat the shredded wheat with brand because I'm at that age now where I have to get all that fiber I can. Sure. We had shreddies a week ago. I love just plain shreddies. They're okay. Yeah, they're okay. No sugar, but I will throw a banana on there. Sorry, Tracy. But yeah, no, we still have cereal. I think there's still a box of Rice Krispies on top of the fridge.
00:24:59
Speaker
Yeah, I liked those. Yeah, they're they're good. ah They're not my favorite because once again, it's another one of those race against the clock before they get soggy. Yeah, well I tilt it like in the bowl so that the milk is on one side and the cereal is on the other and I just introduce it slowly into the milk. You need one of those bowls with a divider. You can just scoop it. Beautiful, beautiful invention.
00:25:24
Speaker
Keep the milk and the cereal separate until you eat them. yes That is so funny. that is so you separate yeah yeah yeah God forbid something should be touching. Oh man. So, um, what, I was going to say something else about serial before I lost it, but anyways, um, yeah. and and no Thank you, serial. Yeah, exactly. And now there's no toys anymore. Now it's just, you know, sign up for this with your email address. Oh, is that what it is? It's all just like QR codes. If anything at all, like this crunch berries box I'm sitting here with has nothing, like there's no prize. There's not even a maze on the back for you to draw.
00:26:04
Speaker
Well, what am I supposed to do while I eat? but You got your phone. My what? Exactly. You mean the phone book. I could read that. ah yeah rememberw he' Not even a maze on the back. no but Not even a maze. Help the cat get, you know, from the brothel back to the dock. Because we sail it, Don.
00:26:29
Speaker
Oh my God. What was that little critter that, um, introduced the crunch berries? It was always stealing. their bird Was that what it was? I don't really know. I can't remember. I think there was a crunch berry bird, but I don't know if that's what we're talking about. And I think he was eating all the crunch berries and the captain was always chasing him down. Maybe. Yeah. That's the maze. Captain's got to find the crunch berry bird. That's right. That's right. That's awesome. Okay. So we'll do that now. Wow. That's sad. Anyway, it's very sad. Yeah, that is sad.
00:26:57
Speaker
Uh, we're going to play a game. oh I'm so clever because I called this game slogans run. Yes, that is an excellent name. time Yes, slogans run. Yes, you win. that's I had a good laugh when I said that. Okay. So I'm going to give you a slogan and you got to tell me what, what the serial was. I may not be good at this, but let's go for it. That's okay. That's the whole fun of it.
00:27:25
Speaker
Is it? All right. it's winner Do you agree? Tyler knows nothing. No, listeners are listeners. You can play along as well. ah So no even yeah i'm sorry, yeah because we're not giving out any prizes. There are no prizes anymore. No prizes. There is a maze. Let me get out of this room. OK, they're ABC delicious. Oh, is that Applejack?
00:27:51
Speaker
Oh, Tyler, ABC, ABC delicious. Like I can hear that. It's not alphabets, right? It is. It's alphabets. You're one of your favorites. alphabebet But I'm thinking of the wizard of words. Remember the wizard that was on the box of, Oh, maybe he came later.
00:28:07
Speaker
Maybe. yeah foolish I can hear that, but I would have thought, like, what is that, Hamburger Helper? Like, I don't know. okay Wasn't that fun? didn't Didn't Josh say that was going to be fun? That was cool. Yeah, Hamburger Helper with the alphabets. That's always fun. Oh, and marshmallows. And around this time, their prize inside was a plastic ID bracelet. So there you go. Something for everyone.
00:28:30
Speaker
That's because we were always outside. we'reval And if you put powder in it, it will float and sink. Yeah, exactly. It came with stick on letters, of course. yeah he it's Actually, they were iron on.
00:28:48
Speaker
Oh no, I was going to say, so we're talking about the Winnie the poo cereal. And the one that I found that was available in Canada from Nabisco was actually called. Oh my God. Forgot what it's called now. Poo honeys. No, it's actually called their calls. I have to, I have to open my phone really quickly. They were called golden honeys. Okay.
00:29:10
Speaker
There I'm showing, showing teller on my phone. Yeah. So they were called golden honeys and that was the Winnie the Pooh cereal. And the prize inside that was transfer sheets. Do you remember those? Uh, well, I don't know if I do. So they were just usually just a little, little tiny square with some, uh, license characters on it. Like in this case, it was Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore and Tigger. And you put it on a piece of paper and you get a pencil and you gently rub over that. And then it would stick to the paper underneath.
00:29:41
Speaker
Oh, like Presto Magix. I know Yeah. Yeah. Before stickers were invented, obviously. Yeah, I had a ton of personal magic, but that would have been years after the Winnie the Pooh cereal. Yes, they go exactly what you mean. That's cool. That's a cool thing in a box. They were kind of cool. I felt a little ripped off because it wasn't actually a toy. It wasn't a catamaran. Like, come on, Shreddy's like Ray Barr. Well, I hope you put them on the wall. I think I put them on my school books. School books. I was a little nerd. So yeah, Golden Honeys, Winnie the Pooh. It's awesome.
00:30:16
Speaker
Yeah, that was an adorable box that you just held up. Yeah, and that's the one that triggered because we we've been trying to find this for a while now and could not figure out what it's called. And there's a number of names afterwards. I think later years they changed the names and I think Poo Honeys was one of them. Yeah. But there was a bunch of different names, but Golden Honeys was the Canadian Nabisco.
00:30:39
Speaker
Huh. Cause honey sounds much more appetizing. It does. Especially with the word poo right there. Yes, exactly. Yes. Yeah. So genius and name change there. Okay. Next one stays crunchy. Even in milk. Right. Yeah. I know it does, but which one is it? Uh, honeycomb.
00:31:04
Speaker
a No, no, it's because I didn't eat this stuff, but I certainly know the, I certainly know the the phrase. Can I get a hint or no, I just told you. but here Here's your hint. Here's your hint. The, the commercial also included Smedley the elephant. Oh, that's like that Jay Ward art, right? yeah He's a really round elephant with like teeny tiny little legs.
00:31:31
Speaker
Yep. Peanut butter or something? Peanut butter crunch? Yeah. Oh, is that what it's called? Peanut butter crunch? Who's? Oh, the the elephants. wasn' it Was that a spin off of the captain? Yeah, it was Captain Crunch. Peanut butter crunch. oh Yeah.
00:31:50
Speaker
That was, I really dragged that out. That was painful. but yes Thank you. You're welcome. Um, but that's cause I didn't, I didn't eat that. Right. So I don't know. it We would, we would have had that at some point I, cause I know the cereal and I know the commercial and it's so funny, the prize inside and the ones that I was looking at from that time period were magic tricks.
00:32:09
Speaker
Okay. yeah yeah Yeah. Like, like, like the two things that separate and like, yeah, yeah the yeah rings and yeah, yeah, there was a lot of that. yeah so cool Cheap unlicensed crap. Exactly. Some plastic in your box of sugar. Anyway, if you're following along at home, that's a two for two for me. Are we done or is there one more? one okay Here's another one. Can't get enough of that.
00:32:35
Speaker
sugar cruise There you go. See? Because I ate that one. And since it's been around for like decades before we were even around. Imagine that. Right? ah Okay. You'll know this one. Okay. Rocks your whole mouth. Oh my gosh. I know, right? A kid cereal. Like don't jet cereal. Like what is that? Rocks your whole mouth.
00:33:01
Speaker
rocks. Well, forgive me for even trying to just come up with something. I i don't even know that one. What is it? Fruity pebbles. Oh, right. Okay. But like, is that an early tag for them or is that like years later? No, it's it was probably a really early one.
00:33:21
Speaker
Wow. That's, well, that's not a bad one now that I know the content is right. Yeah. But I don't ever remember hearing that. And I like, that's a serial that survived too, which is weird. Cause of course you asked the kid who the Flintstones are, they wouldn't know, but yeah, those serials are still on the shelf here. Yeah. isn' that weird yeah That is weird. Huh? Yeah. It rocks your whole mouth. Well, okay. Well, okay. So here's, here's your last one. Oh, okay.
00:33:52
Speaker
Is big. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not small. No, no, no. Honeycomb's got it. blood all over your spoon. According to Josh. Oh no. Yeah. Honeycombs. My favorite. Everybody hold up your tape measure. sure ah Seriously. ah Oh my God. These things were neat. They were just monstrous. There's only four in the box because they're so huge. Yes. But seriously, the worst mouth threader ever. That's just so funny. Yeah. I wonder why like, like, why was it so popular?
00:34:28
Speaker
you know Cause they had the best commercials. Well, they absolutely did. Right. yeah There was always those, I guess that they were live action commercials with Cowboys and yeah. yeah yeah And it was that, yeah, constantly. Right. Yeah. And then there was, oh yeah. They spent billions on those ads because man, that cereal was just huge for me. And also it was also a really big box because the cereal was so big.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:34:56
Speaker
That's hilarious. Do you remember the Freaky's cereals? No, I don't remember that. It was like 12 different, well, I say 12, 12 different monsters living in the Freaky's tree. And it was, this is the Freaky's cereal and they all live in the Freaky's tree. And I wanted that cereal so badly just because of the commercial. It was only in the States, but it was just, oh, I just wanted that Freaky's cereal so bad.
00:35:23
Speaker
No, I totally missed that one. Totally missed that one. Wow. Well, that was our awesome trip through Saturday morning cereal and the sugar rush that it was. Love to hear what you have to say listeners. If you got some comments, cereals you loved, cereals you forgot about, cereal toys, because that was the that was the big deal, like the cereal toys and the stuff that you got inside. So love to hear from you. Check out our social media.
00:35:52
Speaker
um You know, comment, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram. Let us know what was your favorite. Do you remember Smedley the Elephant? And we'll see you next week, next Saturday morning, bright and early, 7 a.m. with our next awesome Yaba Zonkerszoonks episode. Thanks listeners.
00:36:14
Speaker
You've been listening to Yaba Zonker Zoinks, a Gen X for Life podcast. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any exciting episodes. You can reach out on Instagram at Gen X for Life podcast. That's Gen X number four life underscore podcast, or send an email at Gen X for Life podcast, all one word at gmail.com. I'd love to hear about your favorite Gen X Saturday morning memory, maybe a favorite toy or the cereal you just couldn't wait to tear into.
00:36:43
Speaker
Until then, have a yabba zonkers wings day and I'll be back right and early next Saturday morning.