Mother’s Cookies, RIP

Mother’s Cookies, R.I.P.
May your flour rise again.

In sad news, I just heard that Mother’s Cookies is going out of business after, like, 92 years in business.  For many of us East Coast dwellers, that may mean nothing (you can’t get Mother’s Cookies out here), but I grew up on these cookies in California, from my local Safeway store.

Many of my weekly allowances were squandered on Mother’s Double Fudge sandwich cookies or occasionally on their (in)famous Circus Animal cookies: little pink and white animals with rainbow sprinkles on them; probably about 30g of sugar per cookie.  Funny, I don’t remember liking the taste of the Circus Animals that much, but I loved the smell in the bag.  Besides, when you’re a kid, sugar in any form is palatable.

To this day, every time I go to California or someone comes out to visit, I ask them for Mother’s Cookies and I’ve had many of my friends oblige (the term “many” here refers to the percentage of my friends, since the quantity is somewhat small).  As recent as this summer I was pleasantly surprised with a box of Double Fudge included in a package.  The box lasted about 20 minutes.

I guess it’s just part of everything that disappears eventually.  I don’t nearly have the sweet-tooth I nursed as a kid, but I still like to binge every now and then.  I’m not sure if it’s the cookies so much as the trip down Memory Lane, but I never cared which it is because it just felt good, if even for 20 minutes.  I will miss the smell of those Circus Animals, too, since it’s one of those aromas that just takes you back to a time and place that are no longer and probably never will be again.  Funny, all this from a cookie.