Hot cereals like oatmeal and porridge are some of the earliest forms of breakfast, but ready-to-eat cold cereals are relatively new, created and promoted as food that was good for the body and soulâliterally. The early pious versions of cold cereal were dense and bland affairs, meals that were more labors of penance than pleasure. As such, many people were heaping spoonfuls of sugar to their corn flakes at breakfast. Seeing his children doing this one morning, Philadelphia salesman Jim Rex was inspired to create a pre-sweetened cold cereal aimed at kids, which inspired another innovation, the breakfast cereal mascot. Since the introduction of Ranger Joe and his Wheat Honnies in 1939, sweet bits of cereal sold by colorful mascots have become the standard.
Although the purpose of the candy-like bits that found their way into cereal boxes was to enliven an otherwise boring food, they soon became the star of the meal, inspiring many children to dream of giant bowls full of nothing but freeze-dried, brightly-colored marshmallows floating in ice-cold milk.
