So Long Secret Decoder Rings

I realized something this morning while I poured the girl a tiny bowl of Cheerios which I knew instead of eating she'd throw to the dogs.

They don't put prizes in cereal anymore.

Sure, occasionally they'll put a CD with some sort of computer game sample in it or something. But the cereal box prize, as we knew it, is dead.

They give you points you can use on their websites (like a one-year-old really gives a shit about that) to redeem something. Kinda' like when my brer was collecting Copenhagen can lids to get a pool table. At the time he was riding bulls so he'd scour the grand stands after the rodeo was over searching for a glint of the silver lid. I think all he ended up with was a Skoal clock.

Anyways, there was always something magical about digging your grubby little five year old hands into a fresh box of cereal, deserately searching for the crinkle of a plastic wrapper that told you you'd just found the cheap treasure your little heart desired. Then there would be the inevitable fight that would ensure with your sibling over who was the owner of it. Sure, eventually you'd take turns, with the only monkey wrench in the system being your father who was equally amused by the little plastic trinkets. But eventually he'd throw it to the wolves and you and your brother or sister could get back to fighting over whatever it was.

When I mentioned it to the missus, she asked me if it made me feel old. I told her no, only sad. Sad that the girl and her siblings would never get to experience the simple magic that was the prize in the cereal box.

Upon a little further reflection, I guess that's why I'm glad we came back to the homeland. Right now, things aren't 100%. But that comes with moving and new lives. But I wanted the girl to be around her family, and I wanted her to see this place. I wanted her to see it before it got all fucked up and was completely unrecognizable. There's still magic in the sunsets and the open, rolling hills. There's still mysteries in the junipers and the sage and in the distant purple and blue mountains. I don't ever expect her to love this place, this place with all its beauty as well as all of its warts, as much as I do. I just want to share it with her. The good and the bad of it all, I want to share it with her.

There's prizes in other places than cereal boxes.