> Worked REALLY hard to support his 11 kids, his wife, and
the family dog; thus the need for the dozen boxes of
cereal.

Well, y'know, times were different in those days. They didn't
have none of those "Froot Loops" or "Lucky Charms" back
then. No sir, all they had were "shredded pine bark" and the
occasional bowl of "hay with berries." Breakfast foods as we
know them were still a long way off, and with the war effort
underway, there were no inexpensive alternatives. Many
people simply skipped the meal in those days. The
traditionalists, however, settled for whatever they could
get, thankful that the decreased demand had lowered
cereal prices (most grocers had to PAY people to eat the
stuff). Thus, it wasn't uncommon for households like the
Average family to purchase cereal in bulk, to take
advantage of the low prices while they were still in effect.
After all, the landscape of cereal variety would change
drastically in the next three years, culminating with the
advent of "corn flakes," which marked the dawn of a new
era -- a time when breakfasts had become so enjoyable
that the public was desensitized to the perils of eating food
that doesn't use torture as a means of contributing to one's
character.

-useless"glad I stayed awake in that economics class"ness