Oatmeal and hot cereals delivered the most powerfully negative food memories for campers of all years. Holly Foss (1966-72), Bev Lemanski (1945), MaryJo Rawlings (1950’s) and Beth Taylor (1966+) all shared their intense dislike fore oatmeal.
Most of Beth’s camp memories were good ones, but she remembers one counselor who would insist they all clean their plates. Beth hated oatmeal and no amount of brown sugar could help her get it down. She gagged and gagged and this counselor would not let her up until it was done. To this day, she cannot eat oatmeal.
For Sue Robson (1970-71), French toast with powdered sugar and syrup was a good memory, but she has an aversion to this day to oatmeal, even when it was doctored up to make it more palatable.
“I learned to eat oatmeal and I hated hot cereal. It was the texture, not the taste, so I used to drown it in brown sugar and milk and take small bites,” said Stephanie Patterson (1961-65). “I was at camp during the time if you did not eat your breakfast, you were sent to the nurse for castor oil!”
Judy Rowden (1949) and Laya Hennes (1939) hated the apple butter that was served at “way too many breakfasts”, but Judy Sherman (1946-49) hated all the food, particularly the hot Cream of Wheat cereal. Carla Schweinsberg (1945) could not decide which was worse—the cold cereal or the cold toast.
“I can remember it was the worst toast. Cold toast. No butter due to rationing, so I think it was either lard or oleo and you would squeeze out a glob from a tube and it would turn yellow, but I hated it.”
“I remember the flagpole and every morning there was reveille before we went to breakfast. We would sing songs and smack and bang our silverware on the table as we sang the “able song”. We would all quiet down,” said Carrie Norris (1972-73) “and choose our cereal. Pouring the milk into that little box was the grossest thing ever! And the oatmeal—I finally realized in order to eat it, I had to put three times the amount of brown sugar on it to swallow it!”
Laurie Cone (1962-68) is sure there was an arrangement with the Kellogg Company at camp, since she remembered little post cards with Tony the Tiger on them and you would check the boxes next to the sentences like “Having a good time”. “The food is wonderful”, etc. “There was even a place to check what cereal you ate! You had to write home at least once a week, and then the girls filed in for dinner, they would have to hand them to us or go back to the cabin to write something.”
“Singing was one of the best parts of camp, but I also remember the smell of mornings with bacon and toast,” said Jan Schreiber(1962-70). “One of my best foods in my memory was peach toast, where you would take a peach, sprinkle brown sugar on it and toast. But, the most disgusting thing I ever ate there was tuna fish on pancakes that were left over.” (Does this count for breakfast?)
Did hot cereal trigger your gag reflexes? Do you remember a breakfast item that you disliked?