The weather has turned blustery, shaking the remaining leaves from the trees and sending the chipmunks underground for their long winter’s nap. No frost yet, which is unusual at this time of year for us, but, the bitter winds have begun to blow and we’ve felt the first bite of sleet. The days are sliding, determinedly, into the deep cavern of winter. Dusk comes earlier each day.
This morning, however, the sun came up strong with its rays casting the most interesting of shadows that show themselves in the most dramatic ways this time of year.
It was a Cream of Wheat morning!
Cream of Wheat was often our breakfast growing up. Sometimes, we had it for lunch. It was so warm and good after the cold walk home from school for lunch, and was just the fuel needed to walk back. It was one of the first cereals I introduced Jennifer and Katy to as babies, feeding them with a long, silver baby spoon that had been a gift from my Aunt Christina.
It’s Cream of Wheat Weather, I repeat,
So guard your family with hot cream of wheat!
Cream of Wheat is a porridge; ground wheat, called farina. It is cooked with milk or water and just a little stirring makes the smoothest hot cereal imaginable. It was first introduced at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and was manufactured for many years out of Minneapolis. Such things one learns from Wikipedia!
The Cream of Wheat people employed aggressive advertising campaigns almost from the start with cups and bowls and all sorts of things advertising their cereal. They also had such wonderful, now nostalgic, posters. The one above was done by N. C. Wyeth. The mailbox says Cream of Wheat on it.
I think I’ll just go get another bowl of Cream of Wheat.
Lifeonthecutoff's Blog 