Sunday, August 12, 2007


Rebecca asked me, "Why is my milk turning orange?" She is almost 10. When that happened to me (my milk turned orange) I was 11.

I was living on Sierra Madre, Colonia Lomas de Chapultepec in Mexico City with my mother, grandmother and a Siberian Husky called Rusty. Because my grandmother was a a diplomat in the Filipino Embassy she had a living allowance that enabled us to live in a house and an area of the city that normally would have been out of bounds. Across the street, the Rincón Gallardos paraded the latest cars, motorcycles (one, I remember was a Puch) and the occasional horse. Their father, a general, had been from a family of generals in the Mexican Revolution. They had a 24 hour guard so nobody ever stole anything in our neighbourhood.

My grandmother had bought me a black Raleigh bicycle for my birthday so I would cycle up (it was downhill coming back) to the nearby shopping area where there were two stores that I particularly frequented. One was a bookstore that had a lending library. It was there where I became hooked on the Grosset & Dunlap's Hardy Boys and Tom Corbet -Space Cadet books. And at the Piggly Wiggly I was able to find American goods, candies and cereals that were not sold in regular Mexican supermarkets. It was there where I discovered Kellog's Sugar Frosted Flakes and Kellog's Sugar Corn Pops. It is astounding for me to now realize that Sugar has been dropped from both cereals. Our cereal of choice (particularly when Rosemary raids the refrigerator late at night is Kellog's Honey Crunch Corn Flakes. Rosemary only buys it when it is on sale for $3.50 as opposed to its expensive regular price of $7.00. A few weeks ago when we went to Safeway I noticed that while Honey Crunch was not on sale, Corn Pops and Frosted Flakes were attractively priced. I bought a box of each. Trying the Frosted Flakes brought sad memories of the Piggly Wiggly closing down but soon Zucaritas de Maiz , the Mexican nade Kellog version of Frosted Flakes were available. But Sugar Corn Pops faded from my memory until now.

After our lunch of paprika chicken I announced to Rebecca and Lauren that I was going to have Corn Pops for dessert. They looked at me quizzically. It seems that Hilary had never bought them any. They watched me eat my cereal with gusto and they soon had their own bowls with Corn Pops.

And Rebecca asked me, "Why is my milk turning orange?" And Lauren asked, "May I be excused? I want to brush my teeth."

Rebecca, Lauren, Hilary and Bruce are going to Parksville on Monday on vacation. Rebecca will be reading her first Grosset & Dunlap Nancy Drew one of the volumes from her Aunt Carolyn's childhood collection.