So this question came up on Final Jeopardy the other day. (and yes I regularly watch Jeopardy). The category was Americana and the question asked what product used to come with a penny whistle in it? The answer was Cap’n Crunch Cereal. (I guessed cereal but not the brand.)
My other choice was Cracker Jacks.) That got me to thinking…what happened to toys in cereal and Cracker Jacks? Do you remember when your mom would buy the sugary cereal (and my mom didn’t actually buy those kinds of cereals that often) and you’d immediately start looking for the prize? And they were pretty good prizes too. But there are no prizes anymore. They do have games on the back of the box. Cracker Jacks used to have cool stuff, too. Now you get a stupid sticker or a paper with a joke on it. I was curious so I looked it up. Found a good article about it here.
http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/unplugged/sad-fate-cereal-box-toys-200039785.html
Doesn’t seem to be a real answer. The cost of adding the toys? A safety issue…because kids are obviously too dumb to figure out they’re not eating cereal but a TOY!
Either way…I think it’s one more bit of wonder that’s disappeared from childhood…
What cool toy do you remember getting as a kid?
Kristin Wallace Author 