Snickerdoodles

I am currently baking snickerdoodle cookies for the first time in my life.  Let me tell you, the smell is absolutely amazing!  Seriously.  I've never been so tempted to remove baking things from the oven to eat them immediately - and this includes the many pans of brownies I've made and smelled in my life.

Snickerdoodles always remind me of one of my childhood friends, Lennie Wilson.  We went to the same elementary school, the same church, and we rode the same bus. Her grandmother, Mrs. Virginia, was everyone's universal grandmother.  Lennie was always intriguing to me.  First of all, there was her name, Lennie.  I'd never met another one, and it hasn't been until just now that I've realized it is technically the same as the guy's name Lenny - I just always thought it was exotic and foreign.  She was also the only person I ever met that naturally had burgundy red hair.  She and her mother both did. 

Lennie introduced me to snickerdoodles by giving me some once.  They were made by her and her mom and wrapped in a pretty package.  I had never heard of a cookie with such a name and with that exact taste.  And it was years before I ever heard of them again.

I don't know where Lennie and her mom and Mrs. Virginia are today, but I imagine that the girl I knew grew up to be pretty strong and wonderful.  I'm not sure she had a choice given the women in her life. 

Why have I not been making these cookies for years?