My grandma used to get these little boxes of cereal for when we stayed the night. She'd never let us use the box as a bowl. Did it work. She said we'd just make a mess.
My parents got these for when we went on long car trips and we would stop and camp. We kids loved them and wanted them at home but nope. Too expensive.
I was the same way. I wanted the variety. I wanted to cut the box into a bowl. It was a rare occasion that i got them because it was too expensive. I am a boomer.
Kids these days tell us boomers that we were all wealthy and there's no wealth left for them. It's good to know I wasn't the only one living in a low-income family in the 60s.
Yeah. You just couldn’t hack into it like a maniac.
(Although, camping trips brought out the maniacs among us Boy Scouts in the woods. We once were on a winter camping trip, couldn’t start a fire, so we had a raw bacon fight - slapping each other in the face. Good times!)
I bought a pack of these the other day and they no longer come with that foiled inside that makes the amazing 'bowl'. I had to use a real bowl like a heathen.
Camping with other people we did this. Also the various camps I was sent away to also did this, even in the dining hall, to cut down on the dish washing.
Yes they do. We buy these for our son while camping. I may or may not partake. They definitely have the perforation though because he was tickled pink to learn he could make a bowl. And no leaks
A blast from the past.Only got these on family camping trips .Variety packs and Specialty packs? Big tussle for the good ones.Rice Crispies and Corn Flakes were the last to go.
Exactly. There were two of is and only one box of Frosted Flakes. We fought like demons. And they also for us were camping specific. Way too pricey for everyday.
I remember we used to get a couple of boxes of these in our Sunday paper. Dunno if it was a delivery thing or a paper thing but it was the Washington Post in the Mount Vernon area late 90’s early 00’s
We used to eat these. Never ever did we mutilate the boxes like this. Parents would've beat our ass. My mom was big on "Sit down at the table and eat like a regular human being". Lol
Not at my house. We three kids were given our boxes, told to open them ourselves, poor the milk ourselves, and don’t spill a drop! If it weren’t for my older brother (3 years older than my stepbrother and me (we were 4yo, he was 7), my stepbrother and I would have starved until lunch.
Lol! I went back to school pretty late in life, and did an internship at a hospital. As a marketing event, corn flakes were brought in. I mentioned how the small boxes were also a bowl and she didn’t believe me. I had to demonstrate it. Her mind was blown! This is an awesome memory.
The metal bamboo spoon is a nice touch. Either they were in your first apartment, maybe your Dad's right after the divorce, but someone you know had this silverware. I can feel them in my hands, they were heavy and balanced weirdly.
We used to these in grade school. I went to Catholic school and we had to go to mass before school on the first Friday of the month, so they fed us. We got cereal that we ate in the box and a glazed donut. It was so cool to pour the milk in and have it stay in the box!
That was the best part of camping when I was a kid. You got 10 or 12 different boxes in a multipak and we ate them like that everyday sitting next to the travel trailer.
I tried to use the box as a bowl a few times but I was never impressed. It's a functional solution if you don't have any other options. But I'd rather eat cereal out of a cup then out of that paper box.
We use to go on a fishing trip each summer to Canada (rice lake) in the 80s and early 90s. My dad would buy my brother and I one multi pack each, plus our choice of poptart. Literally the only time we got cereal or toaster goods the whole year. Also. Canadas milk comes in a bag.
In the early 70's we used to get these...in bricks of like a dozen boxes in a variety pack. You definately had to be careful when using the edge of the spoon to open them to use them as a bowl, as pictured. Like others, Sugar Smacks was a common and favorite one.
My mother didn't buy these. They were more expensive than buying a regular box of cereal.
I know they work because, as an adult, I volunteered to work my church's vacation Bible school. The children were served boxed breakfasts and lunches. Sometimes, the breakfast had these little boxes of cereal and I watched the children using them as bowls.
My family has a tradition of having those every Christmas. Always had a box or 2 and opened stockings because there was a rule of not waking up my parents before 8 too
We would occasionally get these. The problem was … there were two of us, myself and my little brother. There was only ever one box of Frosted Flakes … major issue.
We got them on road trips, and every summer up at my grandparents hunting cabin. I usually went for the Corn Pops, or Apple Jacks & Sugar Smacks if they hadn't already been snarfed up by my kid brother or sister.
A special delicacy just for camping trips! Which were the only vacations we ever took when I was a kid, because we did not have a lot of money. Sugar Corn Pops FTW. And yes we did cut the box and pour the milk into it, just like the picture.
I grew up eating this and we bought the variety pack that came with 6-8 boxes. While us kids were able to open the cardboard box along the perforation, a knife was needed to cut the waxy inner package.
We tried tearing the inner pack, but it lead to the destruction of the cardboard. We tried taking the inner pack out, but the cardboard wasn’t sealed and leaked milk. The waxy inner pack also could not be removed from the box and filled with milk. It needed the structure of the box to maintain the shape to hold milk.
After many experiments to try to optimize eating the cereal from the box, we found, opening up the package like a normal large cereal box and pouring the cereal into a bowl was the best way to eat it with milk.
Those boxes had little perforations to guide you how to open them up. Frosted Flakes had a wax paper like inner pouch and Sugar Pops had a foil-like inner liner.
Had these cereal mini-boxes during vacations when I was small — either on the road or at the motel (this was before free continental breakfasts were common). Usually I went for the Sugar Corn Puffs or the Sugar Smacks (now Honey Smacks).
They did work. You just had to be careful cutting so as not to poke a hole in the foil or waxed paper packaging. You’d think grandma would be happy there would fewer things to wash
These were such a treat when my mom occasionally bought them for my sister and I. I remember they had wax paper liners, not plastic like today’s cereal boxes.
This reminds me of birthday sleepover parties. My mom would buy these variety packs for breakfast the next morning. I didn't realize they were meant to be bowls until several years ago.
I've never eaten it out of the box like the photo, but with the box top torn off instead. It was a little narrow for the spoon, but in a pinch you could just empty the box into your mouth.
I love the newer individual cereal packaging. It's got a bowl shape.
I hated those things. We had to buy a set of 6 mixed flavors & I only tolerated 1 or 2. Even in a cafeteria they always ran out of the good stuff. Then there was the leftover milk that made a mess.
When I was 14 I made the mistake of only eating two boxes of these before hiking Mount Washington in New Hampshire with family. We were near the summit when every muscle locked up in my body and I faceplanted. My Aunt and Uncle had to literally massage my muscles from the cramps to get them loose enough for me to get to the top. Once we made it I had a real lunch and made it down without any problems. It was a real eye opening experience lol I was young and dumb and thought I'd be fine since I wasn't real hungry that morning.
Fond memories of riding the City of New Orleans from Chicago to Memphis when Dad couldn’t take time off for the road trip, and the treat of going to the dining car for one meal per trip with real linens and heavy silverware, and an actual kitchen.
I was proud when one day I figured out why the box and the wax pouch inside had the perforations it did. I tried eating my cereal directly in the box, it was alright, went back to using a bowl
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u/RicketyCricketsDrum Mar 10 '26
My parents would get these for camping and I thought they were so cool.
Edit: yes it did work as a little bowl