Oreos in the Closet

There was a beautiful cedar wardrobe in my mother’s bedroom, with a lock and key.

It was her secret place.

She used it for personal items, jewelry, mementos of earlier years, and old love letters, discovered after her passing.

She also used it to store those things she wanted to keep from her 6 children.

Huge cans of Christmas cookies that were saved for the holidays, gifts from Santa, delicate breakable treasures, etc.

It is the place where she stored her stash of Oreo cookies.

Or, to be more precise, Hydrox cookies, the predecessor and less popular version. (Something about the name.)

She didn’t drive, so her trips to the grocery store were never spontaneous, they were planned around my father’s work schedule.

Any special treats that arrived in the house were quickly discovered and just as quickly consumed if left in the kitchen cabinets.

Like all of us, she needed that chocolate “pick -me-up” to be available, and the only guarantee was to hide it in that closet.

Once in a while, one of us would find the key, and sneak out a few from her stash.

But not very often. She moved the key around. Frequently.

The cedar wardrobe now resides in the home of a grandson, one she never got to meet.

I’ll have to be sure he and his family know its sweet history.

 

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