The Cookie Lady: No Cookie Monster

During the early post war years, regardless of the special occasion held at the public school, time and time again, just like magic, huge plates of homemade cookies showed up on the tables when it came time to celebrate. 

The mystery of the cookie lady remains unsolved, even today. For the most part, none of the younger students in the one room country school were ever really certain as to who the cookie lady was; nor did that seem to matter, as no one asked that question.

The cookie lady provided homemade cookies for the school children and their families. The cookies were fresh out of the oven, not the kind of cookies that have been prepackaged and stored on a shelf, for no one knows how long. There were never old, crumbly, dried out cookies that were purchased in local, grocery stores. No one could even find packages of those cookies anywhere, at least not in those days.

Many of the cookies from the cookie lady were iced or dipped in chocolate and beautifully decorated for special occasions like Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day or Easter. Sometimes, there were cookies for no special occasion at all. Who made them? Nobody asked.

Reflecting on the person known as the cookie lady, it could be suspected that perhaps a mother, a woman from the church, a Sunday school teacher, or a member of the Women's Institute was assigned the role of cookie lady, depending upon the special occasion. But it was more likely a whole conglomeration of ladies, mothers, grandmothers, teachers and other women, who made baking cookies their task for each event. Some of the older, female students or girls from the 4H home economics club may have been involved, as well. It did not seem to matter who was baking the cookies, but there certainly was no shortage of them for any of the ongoing social events involving the school, the Sunday School or church.

Reflecting on the cookies themselves, they were always such good ones! Chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies with raisins or walnuts, molasses-gingerbread cookies or just plain sugar cookies, all whetted hungry children's appetites. Peanut butter cookies, or those made with dried fruit, candied peel, coconut and nuts of various kinds were equally appealing. Coconut meringue cookies were delicious, too!

Cookie indulgence was expected with respect to schoolchildren. It was not something frowned upon by the cookie lady, or anyone else. Over-indulgence did not seem to be problematic, at least not during that era. The few cookies that mysteriously disappeared from the tables did not create havoc or chaos, either. There was no cookie monster in those days, not even an implied one, even when the cookies that had somehow just appeared, suddenly disappeared.

Perhaps this kind of good cookie trend was a healthy sign of the times during an early, post-war period where people celebrated life together in its fullness.

It is not as if cookies were the only social delight, because all kinds of fancy sandwiches appeared on the tables too, along with cakes, brownies, lemon, apple, cherry or mincemeat pies, butter or lemon tarts and huge pitchers of juice, hot chocolate, tea and coffee. The source of popcorn and candy, including home made chocolates, fudge, mints, candied apples and toffee was not questioned for Halloween, Christmas or other holiday celebrations just simply enjoyed by everyone, especially the children.

Perhaps it all came from that same cookie lady. No one, at least not any of the children, even thought of asking who made them. Of course, over the years, the children grew older and began to learn the cookie lady's secrets. In turn, their children and grandchildren benefited from that collective knowledge, too.

But times became leaner and meaner, the old school was closed and all of the school children had to be taken by bus elsewhere. Social events continued in the old school which became a community center, but it was never the same.

Where did the cookie lady go? One might suspect that in spirit, she is still with the children of today, wherever they attend school or social events. She will never be extinct, even though the cookie trend of that specific era has been phased out. Vestiges of it will continue on in time.