I was in a Bakery/Delicatessen section of a large grocery store recently looking for something in the freshly baked cookie category. A very pretty, very southern talking, twenty something year old woman was behind the bakery counter.

“Do you have any oatmeal raisin cookies?,” I asked her, they being my favorite cookie.

She said she did. I didn’t see them because they were partially hidden by trays of peanut butter cookies , which I consider to be inedible.

I ordered a dozen, and she beamed her brightest smile.

“I hope you like them. I made them myself. It’s my first time baking in this store.”

“How many did you make?”

“Twenty dozen. I never made that many of anything before!”

Being an aficionado of oatmeal raisin cookies, I exercised my right to try one even before I left the store. It was great!

I went back and told her so. I also gave her a victory hands clasped together over my head high sign. She was in the middle of weighing delicatessen food for a customer. She stopped in the middle of her weighing chores, and digested what I had just told her.

When she had finished enjoying the compliment, she gave me another dazzling smile. Who knows, I may have been the first customer of the next new pastry and desert chef of future fame. I like to think that I was.

It’s fun to be present when a star is born.

© 2008 by John Daly