Nilla Wafers

Carol and Doug loved to spoil their grandkids.  Living 1,000 miles away in Florida, it is necessary to turn up the grandparent indulgence to 11 to compete with the Chicago grandparents who see them all the time, instead of just a couple times a year.  So, when the grandkids come to visit, Carol and Doug pull everything out of their “Mary Poppins carpet bag” to earn the renewal of their annual favorite grandparent subscription.

Going to the pool and beach, miniature golfing, movies, video games and everything else living in a paradise affords…. it’s all on the itinerary for seven non stop days of fun.  And of course, stocking up on all the favorite foods, junk food, soda, etc. is a must in the arsenal.

While shopping in the cookie and chip aisle, Carol and Doug put a menagerie of treats in the basket, several kinds of their favorite candies, cookies, chips, etc.  when one especially caught her eye.

“Wow, Nilla wafers,” Carol said smiling.  “I haven’t seen those in years.”

She put a box in the cart and also bought some vanilla pudding mix to dip the cookies in, since she saw that on the box.

A few days into the hurried and busy visit, Carol sat down with her youngest granddaughter, Ali, for a breather.  The rest of the gang went to do some crazy bungy jumping thing and the little ones were too small to go.  Carol put the baby to sleep and sat down with Ali for some girl talk.  She brought out the vanilla pudding and Nilla Wafers with some milk for both as a treat to make Ali feel special after being rejected by a giant bungy.

“No one else gets these Ali,” Carol explained.  “This is our special secret, just us.”

5 year-old Ali’s eyes glowed and her smile beamed as she thought of the special treat that was just for her, not her older brother and sister.  “They get to do everything because their older and I always get left out,” Ali said.

As Carol and Ali began dipping the cookies into the pudding and eating, Carol got a strange sensation.  She suddenly remembered when she was a little girl and her grandmother used to always have Nilla Wafers in a big glass jar on her dining room buffet.  Sometimes they were stale, she recalled, if they hadn’t visited in a couple weeks, but they always tasted good.

She always fondly remembered the special times she and her grandmother shared when she was growing up.  Her grandmother would tell her tales about her childhood and give her secret tidbits about Carol’s mother as a child, and she would perpetually give her the best adages for a good life, like a cow doesn’t give the milk away for free…and other such golden nuggets of wisdom.

But none of these special talks included the cookies. They were just always there on the buffet when any of the grandkids came to visit.

Funny how something that small, just a taste, could remind you of something like that, she thought.

“Well Ali,” Carol declared.  “We are starting a new tradition, from now on, you and I will always find time for Nilla Wafers, pudding and milk.  Just for the two of us.”

Ali smiled as she dipped her cookies in the pudding and then in the milk, causing little dabs of pudding to remain in the milk.  They both laughed and Carol started to tell Ali all kinds of secrets about her father as a child.

“What have you guys been up to,” Ali’s father Alex said when they all trudged back into the house hours later.”  “Nothing,” Ali laughed and looked at Carol with a smile.  “It’s a secret,” she whispered.