An Amateur's History of a Cereal Mascot.

I was walking down the cereal isle. Lately, I've kind of faded into the exercises Sparrow's does and it's been two weeks since I've been to Paul's Stronghouse because I've been really busy with Cup Awards and attending formal banquets with family friends who help children TP houses.


To compensate for the fact that I've not lifted in two weeks, I've been going on these odd little adventures where I walk around parts of town I've never been in for an hour or so, and then stop off at someplace that I actually needed to get to close by.

In addition to that I've been eating very healthy, and now Cheerios makes up a third of my diet or so. However, I was kind of left off the departing bandwagon for the groceries list, so I'd taken the opportunity to hoof it to the supermarket. And that brings me back to where I started. The cereal isle.

Buzz - I think that's the mascot for Cheerios. He's a little bee with a honey-wand that goes around fighting off villains who try to take the hive's honey. He's kind of like an underaged honey-cop I guess. Buzz is kind of unimpressive. I guess I don't really notice if I see him in an isle, because it all blurs together.

Then, I see the oddest face looking back at mine.










This one, actually.

I was oddly captivated. Two years ago, I'd listened to a person drone on about the importance of the World's Fair in my Debate course and mention that Cream of Wheat was first exhibited there, but I'd never really looked into it or tasted it until today, because of that face.

"Who is this?"
It wasn't Buzz - it actually looked a lot like a younger Uncle Ben.

The man in the picture is Frank L. White. He was an 1860's chef in Chicago who was supposedly payed about six bucks to slap on a a set of Chef's Whites and a Toque to be the mascot for Cream of Wheat. They would later name the character Rastus, a shortening of Erastus and somewhat of a racial slur, similar to Tom and Jerry's Mammy Two-Shoes.
















I began to really like this Frank L. White guy...
I don't really care if they make a bunch of racist caricatures out of him; I'd say he's likely the greatist advertising gimmick since Habanero-tan. Rastus tops Buzz - that's why today's picture is just Cream of Wheat.

It was most certainly worth a cent. The fruit made it doubly so.