Behind The Cookie

In August of 1980 I was freshly 3 years old and totally into Care Bears, my sparkly jelly shoes, fascinated by my sister’s obsession with My Little Ponies and all I really wanted to do was roller skate and lip sync to Michael Jackson. But what was most profound that year was the opening of the Pacific Cookie Company on the Pacific Garden Mall in Downtown Santa Cruz. My parents had just moved us from Carmel with the idea to open a cookie store and nothing but our college funds in their pockets. With their promise that they would repay us at some point, my sister Stacy (5 ½ years old at the time) and I thought it was pretty cool. I mean come on, is there a better way to make friends at a new school then letting kids know that your mom and dad make cookies?

Our family lived and breathed cookies. What I remember about the cookie store that year were the stacks of bags of chocolate chips. I was so enamored by them that I used to nap on the sacks while my parents were working. The employees were mostly young and having a good time chatting while scooping cookies. Then there was the bubble gum ice cream, yum, and watching my dad while he made what seemed to be HUGE batches of cookie dough in the electric mixer. Sometimes I would just sit at one of the tables in the front and watch the customers walking away with a cookie in hand and a smile on their face.

Thirty years later that is what I love the most, smiles. A good cookie can always make a person smile and that is why Pacific Cookie Company still exists. We just make some damn good cookies. Always have, always will.

Happy Birthday Pacific Cookie, Thank you for the memories.

Love, Cara