We’ve come to the point in the OT’s where I take things that are meant for small children and try to convince you that they are ok for adults too. I will fail miserably, but feel better for the trying. Aren’t you glad that I use you all as my guilt guinea pigs.
October is the only time of year when I get a little crazy with my purchases. For 334 days, I may hate a certain product, but slap a Halloween/October theme on it and I am suddenly all over it. For example, I really don’t care for marshmallow peeps, but if you color them orange and make them into the shape of a pumpkin I will eat them like they are a fine truffle. Or say you have an experimental candy that tastes a little suspect but glows in the dark and has a ghost on the packaging. I’m your girl. And don’t even get me started on Berttie Botts Every Flavor Beans. I still can’t get the taste of grass out of my mouth and it has been at least 10 years. Oh the things I do for my favorite month. Maybe it is a good thing that it only comes around once a year. All year long I wait for October to come around so that I can indulge in these marvelous goodies. Only in October does Arctic Circle bring out its square pumpkin and the grocery stores display their monster themed cereal.
This year on October 1st, Arctic Circle had their first Halloween advertizement. I exercised a modicum of self restraint and waited a whole three days before I zoomed off to the establishment because I couldn’t take the waiting anymore. I had to have that square pumpkin. HAD TO! One would have thought it was Christmas morning as giddy as I was. I took my Halloween cassette tape with me and belted out songs all the way to the restaurant. Once there I giggled like a fiend while I waited for the drive-thru attendant to take my order. I think I freaked her out with my enthusiasm. She gave me a choice of which toy I wanted in my kids meal and I gleefully announced that I wanted all four. This seemed to confuse her and she kept explaining to me that I would have to pay for the extras. I said that I understood, and that I still wanted four. She really didn’t know what to do and just told me to pull forward.
Let me tell you this, when you order a kids meal and extra toys, the person at the window expects you to pull up with an SUV or minivan full of children. She was quite puzzled to see me and only me grinning from ear to ear with no kids in the vicinity. I could really care less about the food in the kids meal, it is the box it comes in and the toys inside that I want. Last years toys were big jelly skinned spiders with strobe lights in their stomach. So COOL! This year it was a set of four tiny flashlights in various shapes. A ghost that is cuter than it has a right to be. A pumpkin, a skull that is a bit frightening and a witch, which I usually would pass on, but she is the cheeriest green witch that I have ever seen, plus she has a jaunty hat. I giggled all the way home and couldn’t wait to show mom my new October acquisitions. My favorite is the ghost. I spent way longer than I will admit showing the puppy how each spooky flashlight worked, and I may or may not have made light saber type wooshing noises while using them.
Having acquired the mini flashlights and square pumpkin early in the month, I now turn to my next dilemma. It is nine days into October and I have yet to devour a pink box of delicious marshmallow monsters. How can this be? Personally I think all the cereal boxes know that I am coming and are either using some sort of cloaking device or chameleon like shift of their front covers to look like some sort of bran flake. Why cereal boxes, why?
You guessed it, my other favorite October treat is Franken Berry cereal. It is sugary, doesn’t really taste all that spectacular, and is a regrettable pink color, but I am preconditioned to like it because it has something to do with October and I therefore eat it with great gusto. Growing up my mother was sensible enough never to let me eat sugary cereals. I didn’t have my first taste of one until I was in Jr. High and I thought it was awful. I did however find that I liked the holiday Crunch Berry cereal, but that is getting off topic. I don’t remember when it was exactly that I started to eat Franken Berry, but I know I sought it out because I saw a commercial for it on TV. See, advertizing really does work. The add had Count Chocula, the Franken Berry monster (who has a British accent YAY) and the Boo Berry ghost all around a cereal cauldron and I think they showed the marshmallows floating out of it. Then came the obligatory tag line "part of a nutritious breakfast" Yeah, if you didn’t actually eat the cereal and had some wheat germ and a banana maybe. Really, who are you trying to kid General Mills. Play to your strengths. There are monsters on the box and marshmallows in the cereal, of course kids (and by kids I mean me) are going to want it.
Of the big three (there used to be a Fruit Brute and a Yummy Mummy) I like Count Chocula the least. It tastes like chocolate flavored chalk. Boo Berry is tolerable, will do in a pinch and tastes vaguely fruit like. Franken Berry is my favorite and sorta tastes like strawberry if you use your imagination. The milk turns a really interesting shade of pink as the cereal dyes wear off and it always makes me think of the dyes they inject you with before an MRI. Which is kinda cool, because one, I like MRI’s and two, Frankenstein grew up in a mad scientists lab so maybe it is radium dye that I am eating and Dr. Frankenstein himself will show up one morning. Either that or I will grow a third eye from eating the cereal. So it’s pretty much a win, win scenario any way you look at it. ;)
Over the years the characters on the boxes have changed to stay hip with the times. Being stodgy and old I like the way the monstrous crew looked in the 80's. Now they are more streamlined and animated and it doesn’t feel the same. The original Count Chocula reminded me of a creepy uncle that you only invite to family gatherings hoping he won’t show up. Franken Berry looked a bit like a slow witted monkey and the Boo Berry ghost I’m sorry to say looked like a stoned Frank Sinatra. Where do they come up with these drawings? Now the Count looks like a very enthusiastic used car salesman from the 70's. Franken Berry looks like he’s had about twelve five hour energy drinks in a row, and the Boo Berry ghost still looks like he has eaten one too many funny brownies, but at least now he is really happy about it. On the back of the boxes last year, the trio tried to solve a mystery. So at least I had some lite reading entertainment as I ate. This does not however make up for the fact that there are no longer toys in the cereal boxes. I feel vaguely cheated. Maybe the third eye I will grow is the prize. A girl can dream.
Anyway, I don’t just stop at monster cereal buying. I like them so much that I have expanded my collection. A good friend gave me collector pins a few years back with the cereal box pictures on them. Each of the five monsters had a pin and then there was one with the whole group. I love them so much that they stay up year round on my bulletin board. Then last year, I found a 7 inch plush Franken Berry doll. It looks rather ridiculous and I had to wait months for them to ship it, but it was so worth it. So now, when I eat my Halloween cereal, I can have my plush monster beside me and my pin on my shirt. How is that for dedication. Have I scared you yet? I’m curious, does anyone else have an October obsession like mine? Man I love this month!
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