Whenever I see an Oatmeal cream pie I am immediately brought back to my childhood and the visits when great grandma Creech would come stay with out. My great grandma was a unique woman. She was taller, and always skinny – although I don’t think she tried. Even at 98 she had very few wrinkles. When I asked her once why she told me it was due to the Jergens lotion she used on a daily basis. I don’t ever remember seeing her with gray hair – even the last time I saw her I think she still had it colored dark. Best of all was that she was full of life – and of spunk. She was the kind of woman who told you exactly what she was thinking when she was thinking it – and I loved her dearly.

About once a year grandma Creech would come visit. She always brought the requisite three things with her – oatmeal cream pies, apple jelly and a large box of Whitman’s sampler. The oatmeal cream pies and apple jelly were for her. The Whitman’s sampler was purely for my sister and myself. Grandma creech loved to spoil us – and we loved to be spoiled. I could sit for hours and listen to her tells stories about the days when she camped with my great granddad, about raising my grandmother (and my mom) and just about her life in general. She always put in her two cents (like the time she told me if my boyfriend tried to kiss me before we were married that I should spit in his face and slap him – and he would respect me for it) and while I didn’t always take her advice I did learn a lot from it.

Grandma Creech died when I was 16 years old. But in those 16 years she taught me a tremendous amount. She taught me that being ladylike and having grace, kindness, faith, love, and spunk were good things – and so were oatmeal cream pies.