Memory's From a Box of Flakes

It's funny how sometimes the smallest things can generate memories of childhood, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Mom, in her convalescence at the hotel has been requesting "Corn Flakes" for breakfast. So I went out and bought a big box of corn flakes and Louise has been putting them into one of those tupperware things and we take it up the night before for her breakfast. Yesterday morning I decided that I would have a bowl of corn flakes. It must be 40 years since I had corn flakes, remembering of course how youthful I am. As I travelled on the road today to Swift Current I began thinking of childhood and how corn flakes was one of the main things we would have for breakfast. I grew up in a very limited income family. Mom worked outside the home (unusual in those days, not so much now) and Dad was a struggling musician who taught piano to supplement his income. So Monday - Friday it was pretty much corn flakes or some other cold cereal (I also remember Tony the Tiger and Frosted Flakes - they're grrrreat commercial) because it was quick and easy to prepare. As kid's we would go grocery shopping with Mom and take turns with one of us picking the type of cereal. I always chose corn flakes. On Saturday's if Mom had the day off or if Dad was teaching later, then we would get hot oatmeal porridge. And Sunday's was always hot oatmeal I love oatmeal porridge to this day.
It was interesting looking up this history of Corn Flakes. I guess I didn't have enough to do today.
Corn flakes are a popular breakfast cereal originally manufactured by Kellogg's through the treatment of corn (maize). A patent for the product was filed on May 31, 1895, and issued on April 14, 1896.[1][2]
The accidental legacy of corn flakes goes back to the late 19th century, when a team of Seventh-day Adventists began to develop new food to meet the standards of their strict vegetarian diet. Members of the group experimented with a number of different grains, including wheat, oats, rice, barley, and of course corn. In 1894, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the superintendent of The Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan and an Adventist, used these recipes as part of a strict vegetarian regimen for his patients, which also included no alcohol, tobacco, or caffeine. The diet he imposed consisted entirely of bland foods. A follower of Sylvester Graham, the inventor of graham crackers and graham bread and supporter of sexual abstinence, Kellogg believed that spicy or sweet foods would increase passions. In contrast, cornflakes would have an anaphrodisiac property and lower the sex drive.[3]

This idea for corn flakes began by accident when Dr. Kellogg and his younger brother, Will Keith Kellogg, left some cooked wheat to sit while they attended to some pressing matters at the sanitarium. When they returned, they found that the wheat had gone stale, but being on a strict budget, they decided to continue to process it by forcing it through rollers, hoping to obtain long sheets of the dough. To their surprise, what they found instead were flakes, which they toasted and served to their patients. This event occurred on August 8, 1894, and a patent for "Flaked Cereals and Process of Preparing Same" was filed on May 31, 1895, and issued on April 14, 1896.[2][4][5]