Grandpa's Oatmeal Cookies

I made oatmeal cookies with coconut and raisins last Saturday. For bribery purposes, really. We had told our Primary class that we would bring them treats long ago, and I finally got around to it last week.

And man, did I ever enjoy those cookies. I enjoyed them so much that I decided to make some more, this time without raisins, per Eric’s request. I didn’t have any reason for making about three dozen cookies except that I like cookies, and I wanted some more sugary-oatmeal goodness.

I think the reason I like oatmeal cookies so much is that the remind me of my grandpa, Captain Jack. He was not a captain, nor was he named Jack, but that is what he liked to us to call him if we weren’t calling him grandpa. (Actually, the nickname came along when my older siblings were small and needed help distinguishing between my grandpa and his father. So, his dad was “grandpa” and he was Captain Jack. The name stuck.)

When I was little we went to my grandparent’s house every week. My grandma died the day I turned five, so after that it was just my grandpa’s house. My grandparents weren’t necessarily the type of grandparents that you think of- baking cookies, giving horse rides, dressing up as Santa Clause. As little children we were expected to sit on the hearth. We were also allowed to go to the back room and color, but the house belonged to Grandma and Grandpa, and we needed to stay out of the way and let the adults visit.

With that said, my grandparents were not entirely unlikeable people. In fact, I really liked both of them. I especially liked my grandpa as I got older and he found things he could talk to me about. But even when I was little and didn’t have anything good (read: adult, boring) to talk about with Grandpa, I still liked him. I think it was because he piled on the sugar.

We always left grandpa’s with bags of candy. Good candy. Always in the “fun” size, (which we know is small, and therefore not as fun as the name would indicate). Snickers, Hershey’s whatnots, Jelly Belly jelly beans, and other such cavity-making treats.

Plus, Grandpa almost always gave us ice cream sundaes. He would brush his hands quickly together, point to my brother to go get things started in the kitchen, and then point to me to get the TV trays. As he did so, he called us by our nicknames, Irving and Trixie. (Don’t ask me why those were our nicknames. I have no idea.) I would dutifully get the trays, and Steven would help make the sundaes.

These were no ordinary sundaes. Grandpa always had deluxe ice cream. He topped the ice cream with chocolate syrup, sprinkles, caramel syrup, and he put cookies on the side. Which brings me to my point. Usually he included oatmeal cookies. They were just some good-quality store-bought oatmeal cookies.

Some grandparents give homemade cookies, or malts or berry-shakes. My grandpa gave us sundaes with yummy store-bought cookies. And one day when I’m a grandma, there will be too many sundaes to count. But I’ll probably serve them with homemade cookies.