Happy National Shredded Wheat Day

Every day is National Something-or-Other Day.

Most of these days are not exactly celebrated. 

For instance, February 17th is National Cabbage Day. 

Now I like cole slaw. I like stuffed cabbage. I like colcannon with cabbage shredded in it. But, except for the boiled potatoes with lots of butter and salt, and using the corned beef the next day for hash, I hate boiled dinner, which features cabbage. And don't get me going on sauerkraut. So I'm mixed on cabbage. But I can't imagine actually celebrating National Cabbage Day. Who does, other than maybe cabbage growers and sauerkraut canners.

June 25th is National Parchment Day.

Is this for those inscribing great thoughts on parchment, or cooking with it? Fifty+ years ago, when my friend Joyce and I drove cross country, we mostly cooked over our little Coleman cook stove. But we had a big splash meal at Antoine's in New
Orleans, and I ordered Pompano en Papillote. Which was delish, but not enought to get me to celebrate National Parchment Day. 

November 8th can't decide what it is.

It's National Dunce Day AND National STEM Day. 

Huh?

Today, July 31st, has a lot of things going for it, national-day-wise:

• Cotton Candy Day 
• Jump for Jelly Beans Day 
• Mutt's Day 
• National Avocado Day 
• National Chili Dog Day - July 31, 2025 (Last Thursday in July)
• National Intern Day - July 31, 2025 (Last Thursday in July)
• Uncommon Instruments Awareness Day 
• World Ranger Day 

Cotton Candy is pretty vile, so blech to that celebration. I could Jump for Jelly Beans, but how does this differ from regular old National Jelly Beans Day (April 22nd)? Mutt's Day: Every day should be Mutt's Day. Go, mutts! 

National Avocado Day? National Chili Dog Day? Okay, I'm down with both avocados and chili dogs, but I don't exactly jump for them. 

National Intern Day celebrates college students getting work experience via internships, not Dr. Kildare interns curing patients at Blair General Hospital. Not all internships are paid, so I'd be all for National Intern Day if it advocated for interns to make money while interning so that kids who actually needed to earn a wage for their work because they're working their way through college could have those vaunted professional internship experiences, and not be forced to wait tables. (Not that there's anything wrong with waiting tables, which was how I spent my college summers back in the days when internships didn't exist and ain't no one I know who'd have worked for free.)

I suppose that Uncommon Instruments Awareness Day is worthy. I mean, we all know the piano, the violin, the flute, the snare drum, humble recorder, the even humbler kazoo. So why not celebrate the Maui Xaphoon, a handmade bamboo sax invented in 1972?

At some point today, I'll probably be walking in the Boston Public Garden, where sometimes I see Boston park rangers. In celebration of National Ranger Day, I'll try to remember to tip my cap to them.  

But the one July 31st National-Whatever-Day I can get down with is National Shredded Wheat Day.

I don't eat cold cereal all the time, and if I'm eating cereal, it's more apt to be oatmeal. 

But I like Cheerios. I like Quaker Puffed Wheat and Quaker Puffed Rice. I like Rice Krispies. I like Cornflakes.

As a kid, I ate cold cereal regularly, and I leaned towards the sugary ones. I loved Sugar Crisp, one of the first "pre-sweetened" cereals, which was actually advertised as both a cereal and a candy. I'm surprised my mother bought it, as - other than for candy-related holidays like Halloween and Easter - we never had candy in the house.

Ditto for something called Sugar Jets, which I always loved. (I'm hungry, I'm hungry, for good food to eat. For Sugar Jets, Sugar Jets, candied and sweet.) You could almost feel the Sugar Jets boring a hole through your teeth.

But my cold cereal of choice is Shredded Wheat.

Large or mini, as long as it's NOT frosted, I love Shredded Wheat. 

I don't care if some folks consider it the equivalent of eating a brillo pad, I say YUM! 

Add milk, add fruit (blueberries, strawberries, peaches, even raisins in a pinch).

Today I am most definitely observing this joyful day.

And Happy National Shredded Wheat Day to those who celebrate it!

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Info Source: Holidays & Observances

Image Source: Wikipedia