Rant #2,389: Hooked On a Feeling

Well, here we are, another week into this war we are wielding against the dreaded coronavirus.

And here, I am eating cereal, the type of stuff that I ate when I was nine or 10 years old.

Let me explain.

With Passover ending the other night after eight days and nights of not eating non-Passover foods--I really stayed on that diet this time, except for one of two glitches, such as when we ran out of Kosher For Passover Coca-Cola--out went the matzoh and in went the leavened bread.

And I looked in the cupboard, and I found that I was out of breakfast cereal, a true staple of my diet for seemingly my entire life.

Not to feat! I made it through my first non-Kosher-For-Passover breakfast by using broken up Rice Krispies Treats, a practice I have done for ages when I run out of cereal.

(Quite frankly, I could have used some of my son's cereal, but this is just so much more fun!)

But not to fret. Thursday has turned into my family's main food shopping day, so my wife and I trekked over to the local supermarket, masks in hand--and eventually on face--to brave the elements and fill our refrigerator and pantry with food.

We got to the supermarket, and almost everyone was wearing their masks, which today, is mandated policy in New York State. When you are dealing with situations where social distancing--2020's buzz phrase of the year--is nearly impossible, such as shopping for food, you must wear a mask, or be subject to who knows what. I did see a few people without masks, but the law in New York State actually goes into effect today, so I guess they figured that one more day without the mask isn't going to kill them.

(Not trying to be funny here.)

Anyway, my wife and I proceeded through the store, and the store's essential workers all had their masks on.

(And let me clear something up from yesterday's Rant: in Florida, professional athletes ARE considered essential workers, right up there with medical personnel, grocery workers and mailmen. Go figure ... .)

So my wife and I moved up the aisles, and we finally came to the cereal aisle, which was not as plentiful as normal, but still had a fine selection of different cereals from all the major brands.

(I guess the area was not as plentiful because if you are quarantined at home, one of the great comfort foods has to be cereal, in particular, the sugar-sweet kind.)

My wife found her cereal immediately, but I took a minute or two longer. I simply could not find anything that was catching my fancy. For years, I ate regular Cheerios, but a few years ago, I expanded my cereal palate, eating lots of different types of cereal--but no Raisin Bran, as I have never needed that to--

(You get it, I am sure.)

So I looked up and down the aisle, and lo and behold, I found what I was looking for--or at least found something that caught my eye in a big way.

I found a cereal that I had eaten as a kid, I had eaten its competitor, I had even voted for it when the cereal company launched a "contest" to see which one of the two cereals would win out and still be produced.

Yes, 50 years after the fact, I chose--

Quisp!!!!!

Yes, this sugary cereal was one of the cereal bellwethers of my childhood, and it is being produced once again, and has been periodically for the past few years.

You might remember the fan fare when it came out under the Quaker Oats brand in 1965. The company had never really gotten a foothold in the sugary cereal field at that point in time--it was one of the top producers of oatmeal in the country--and it went into this niche of the market in a big way, first with Cap'n Crunch, and then with Quisp, with both employing wide advertising aimed at eight year olds like me.

These two were soon joined by Quake cereal, a similar sugary concoction, and the war was on to find the one--Cap'n Crunch was extremely popular Quisp and Quake were sort of ancillary cereals for Quaker Oats, and they were marketed as rivals to each other--that would beat the other for Quaker Company cereal supremacy.

To me, they both kind of tasted the same, but Quisp had that funny-looking space alien on the box, Quake only had that strongman construction worker on its box, so there was really no contest.

Quisp won out over Quake, and Quaker--dig the "Qu" nomenclature--has been with us, off and on, for the past more than 50 years. I think somewhere down the line that Quake also re-emerged briefly, but once again, Quisp won out.

So I was happy as a lark as we paid for our groceries with Quisp among the products we purchased.

I tried the cereal this morning after not having had it for ages, and its flying saucers are still as sugary as can be, but with milk, they are also heavenly.

The box is pretty thin--much skinnier than I remember it, but it is not the only cereal that has squeezed the box in recent times--and the price was steep--nearly $5 for a box of cereal is outrageous--but whatever the case, eating Quisp this morning brought me back to my childhood.

It was like riding a bicycle. You might not have ridden one in decades, but you get back up on one, it's like the skill never left you.

It was the same thing with Quisp. I scooped up the first mouthful on my spoon, took it in my mouth, and I knew I was home--

Sort of quarantined, but I was home for sure.

Finding Quisp almost makes we want to look for Puffa Puffa Rice again, but we will leave that voyage for another day.

Have a good weekend. I will speak to you again on Monday.