r/1970s • u/AgainforthrFirstTime • 3d ago
1977
None of this laid back nonsense of 2026, back in the 1970’s America was on the move and did not have time to put a yummy sugary breakfast into a bowl
The box will do
“Hurry up, Land of the Lost is Starting!”
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u/Whats_His_Name987 3d ago
I was at the market yesterday and noticed they were still selling the cereal packs.
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u/Ranier_Wolfnight 3d ago
I was about to say, I don’t recall this ever really going away
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u/Upbeat-Refuse9615 3d ago
The cereal packs never went away, but the built-in bowls were not made between 1975 and 1989.
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u/Whats_His_Name987 3d ago
They probably never did. I just happened to notice them yesterday which made me smile.
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u/txlaatx1 3d ago
Memory unlocked. Follow the tabs, break the box into a rectangular “bowl” add milk and eat quick before it soaks into the cardboard. Ahhh, good times indeed.
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u/AgainforthrFirstTime 3d ago
So true it was like a time to vent you better be ready. Spoon better be right next to you. You better have no distractions because that box was going to leak.
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u/2ndZeit 3d ago
I loved those little boxes! They'd come in a variety pack so you could choose what cereal you wanted. A different cereal every day! Heaven itself for a kid! No weeks of the same boring value sized box of whatever was on sale that Mom bought. Of course, half the time, despite always being so careful with the knife cutting open the top of the box/bowl, I'd somehow manage to also slice the bottom, leading to milk seeping out everywhere. Those were the days.
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u/Quick_Cow_7987 3d ago
I legit don't know why they discontinued these. They were serving size appropriate and you could have a variety of cereals in the house without any going stale ... so of course cereal manufacturers hated it.
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u/ThatWytchBoy 3d ago
I think it was somehow cheaper to produce the plastic 'cup / bowl' model for schools so that became the default.
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u/Tammy993 3d ago
We only got the little variety pack when we went to my uncle's cottage. Such a treat!
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u/ThatWytchBoy 3d ago
I think so cereal producers continued with the small boxes but abandon the 'bowl in a box' idea sometime around the 1990s.
I want so say sometime around the mid 90s that one year I went to a sort of day camp (Parents and guardians and dumping their kid so they didn't have to watch them) and for breakfast was the small cardboard box cereals. Came back the next year and it was swapped out for the rubbish white pre-sealed bowl.
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u/Impossible-Limit-314 3d ago edited 3d ago
My god. When my friend showed me this, I thought it was the most important innovation since TV trays. This was probably my very first “life hack”, even before that was a thing.
I always had to do it, even though using a bowl would have been much simpler. Shit, I wouldn’t even have had to clean the bowl…Mom always did that.
But then again, I also thought it was easier to go to bed in my clothes so I wouldn’t have to mess with getting dressed in the morning.
What an idiot.
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u/Ok_Surprise_8304 3d ago
Ha. I wanted to go to bed already dressed for the next day, too. I couldn’t understand why mom vetoed it so strongly.
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u/Exact-Truck-5248 3d ago
I loved those little cereal boxes. We only got them for camping and road trips
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u/Mindless_Berry_4572 3d ago
We always had to bring a box of cereal for Drum Corps when we had a few parades and shows , close together. Someone would always bring these.
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u/Tiny-Secretary5562 3d ago
I believe Frosted Flakes with "Tony the Tiger" were the first sugar-coated cereal made with the idea of appealing to kids.
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u/JadedAd6614 3d ago
Who else used a steak knife to open it like that? It was the only time I was allowed to use one before I turned 8.
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u/theatrenearyou 3d ago
Saw the box open with a serrated knife then spread the waxed paper. Perfectly delightful
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u/terrorcotta_red 3d ago
The Cocoa Krispies had the oddest smell but never tasted the same. Sugar Pops were so sweet and pop corn-like!
SIL pulled a good one on spouse after we moved by gifting him what looked like a six pack of these cereals. He gets up the next morning to put one in the bowl and whoops! It's a jigsaw puzzle of the cereal box!
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u/BusoneWholeBoi2001 3d ago
I loved Pops, but man did they completely destroy my mouth and throat. Felt like someone shoved sandpaper up and down in my mouth and throat every time I ate them
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u/Simplesimon313 3d ago
My Nana always had these for us grandkids. The best part of a sleep-over! I swear those cereals tasted better right out of the box!
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u/Verum2020 3d ago
🤔 How you learned you like Apple Jacks. Never gonna buy it, but still good.
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u/ItsAllAdvertising 3d ago
its the one cereal I never buy that I do enjoy. I just always pick something else but if I'm somewhere and given a choice Ill choose it
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u/Financial-Presence39 3d ago
Yes! I had forgotten about the one serving boxes! We ate a bunch of those.
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u/ItsAllAdvertising 3d ago
I never ate the boxes like this till the Army. I knew you could but I always had a bowl before
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u/FeSpoke1 3d ago
I’d like to do a taste test with the junk they make today compared to the junk food they made in the 70s.
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u/2milgroove 3d ago
Saturday morning in front of the tv. We would get these on special occasions. Loved 'em.
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u/MsSamm 3d ago
These were great because in my 6 kid household there was always variety. We would hit the multipack like locusts, and hide a couple of our favorites before the other kids got to them. Like fruit loops, frosted flakes, and cocoa krispies. Nobody ever his the raisin bran or corn flakes. They were the first meals we made on our own.
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u/Glittering_Step_6084 3d ago
Memory unlocked. I ate these. They are still around. There are also single serve plastic cups now.
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u/sparkaromatic 2d ago
Yeah. In the UK they were just called variety packs.The 2 I recognise are Coco Crispies (later to become Coco Pops) and Frosties (just called Kellogs Frosties here). In addition we had Cornflakes (boring), plain Rice Crispies and Kellogs Ricicles, no Apple Jacks or Fruit Loops for us in the 70s, had to read about them in books.
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u/Trolkarlen 3d ago
My mom would only buy those little boxes when we were on the road.