My Favorite Cookies

The other day, as I was preparing things for Garth and I to get away to the mountains, it was my job to go to the grocery store for supplies. Garth told me I needed to get cookies and candy, which creates a big problem for me. I don't like to make little decisions about things like which ones to get. As I looked at the packages I knew immediately which ones I wanted....the frosted animal cookies. During my high school years these became my favorite cookies, for some strange, now-unknown-reason. I remember loving these cookies. So what does that have to do with Dad? The year was 1976 and I had just returned from a choir trip to Washington DC and back with the Ogden Institute Choir. My sisters will remember that as a very painful time for me when I ended up in the hospital with an abscess in an "unmentionable" place. Imagine sitting on the bus for 2 weeks, and then returning to find that sore just a few days later! I know I was blessed to not get that sore while on the trip, but that it waited until I got home. Anyway, Dad and Mom actually drove all the way to Ogden to pick me up and take me home because I was so sick. Of course, that next night was Linda's Junior Prom and from there on it was all downhill for me, ending up in the hospital for several days. So what about iced animal cookies? I'm getting to that.

After that terrible experience in the hospital, when the doctor finally put a big needle into that sore and drained it right there...I'll spare any more details .......I was finally feeling better and Mom was able to sit by my bedside after everything was cleaned up. Dad had to leave for a little while, so he said. When he returned he had a cold Coke for Mom, and a big bag of iced animal cookies for me. He remembered that they were my favorite. He said he knew I had gone through so much pain and he wanted something that I really liked to help me forget the pain.

Many times when I walked into the kitchen at home, he would tell me to get in the top drawer and get myself some animal cookies. He kept a supply of them in there regularly. I can't eat iced animal cookies without thinking of him. He knew I loved them. They can take away the worst pain.