Ode to Mother’s Circus Animal Cookies

This week I have been obsessed with finding Mother’s Circus Animal Cookies! These have been my favorites since I was a tike. (I guess I forgot to add them to MY FAVORITES section on my BLOG. You bet they are there now! )My mom would buy these on occasion and they never lasted very long in our house.
When I was about 10 years old and I would visit my grandmother in Sunnyvale, my cousins would come visit too. That was back in the day when parents didn’t have to worry where their children went. We were able to go walk to the grocery store (and it was about a mile away) mid day to go pick up a special treat. Well, I was told I could pick out a candy bar, but my cousins would each buy those bags of Mother’s Animal Cookies! They’d share a few, but I always remember that I couldn’t wait til I was old enough to buy whatever I wanted and whenever I wanted it. We’ll that day came when I was a teenager and I have to admit, I bought my share of those bags of cookies and always enjoyed every single one of them. As an adult, they are still a favorite, but I have to maintain self control because I could very easily devour that whole bag in one sitting. Therefore, we only bought them on special occasions, such as: road trips in the car, when the Circus Animals changed to Christmas shaped cookies, and just when we wanted to have a little special snack in the house. Funny thing is…Kevin loves them too!
The “official” news came this week off my Facebook Page when a long time childhood friend confirmed that Mother’s Cookies had shut down fort overnight. You see, I had seen a sign on the cookie shelves at RALPHS a month ago that Mother’s/Archway had gone out of business overnight. I guess I just assumed they meant that they had temporarily stopped production and that they’d be back on the shelves in no time. Well, that was not the case. When Wendy said they were out of business, I googled Mother’s Cookie Company and found that because of the economy being in dire straits that they could no longer afford to stay in business. Therefore after 92 years.....they were gone.

I was really sad by the whole thought of those silly cookies being gone that I even started on my soap box at the playground, to my friend, Sarah. After she heard the news, she too became obsessed with finding the cookies. That gal has twin 2 year olds, as well as a 6 year old and she packed them up and went on a venture to find some cookies! They hit several stores. It wasn’t easy but she came back with some chocolate chip cookies, TAFFY, English teas, and maybe one other. She wasn’t able to find the Circus Animals that evening. So, after Kevin got home, I had to run out to Target for party supplies. As a last ditch effort to find those silly cookies, I decided to see if Target had any left on the shelf. Well, they did! (the checker was telling me she had a hard time finding those cookies…so, I told her they are on their way out…so, she ran to the shelf to get some too) You’d think I had struck gold. I bought 4 bags, one for Sarah and three for us. Aren’t I a nice friend??? I did share. It’s funny because now I am finding these bags on ebay for 9.99 and up PLUS shipping. I think the word is out and there is some sort of FRENZY, or maybe it’s my imagination.

Well, needless to say I’m still on the search for FLAKEY FLIX! Another awesome cookie from the Mother’s Cookie Company. Take it from a gal that use to work for Nabisco……those cookies knock Oreos out of the running. Sarah went out again tonight and found a few more bags of cookies. She brought me back the Circus Parade Assortment. There are lots of goodies in there! But, she came back with something even better....SOME PROMISING NEWS! She was talking to a lady who was stocking cookies and she did mention that the Mother’s Cookies wouldn’t be gone for too long because the Kellogg Company was going to take over production for them. So, hopefully that is true and we will see these beauties again in the near future (maybe a year), I would love for the traditions to continue on. Most people I have spoken with say they have great memories of the little frosted animal shaped cookies, dipped in frosting, with colorful sprinkles all over it. My new motto in life, “Good Things Come with Sprinkles.”