 A 1974 article characterized cereal prizes of the 1950s as "Captain Midnight secret-decoder rings and.. baking soda-powered frogmen" whose arrival by mail children waited for "impatiently".In 1959, columnist Tom Harris of the West Virginia "Gazette-Mail" lamented the passing of the send-in box-top prize in place of the in-box prize.The column humorously noted the family battles over cereal purchases which the in-box prizes instigated.