Visiting Grandma Kate and Aunt Honey and all the other folks who lived in the big house on Wilmington Island was always a treat - in more ways than one. Whenever it was time to leave, Grandma would disappear into the little storeage room off the kitchen which was carved out from the space under the staircase in the living room. She would emerge with Date Bars, Mince Meat Cookies, Coconut Macaroons, Sugar Cookies and fill a small box for us to take home.
        It was always amusing to me that we would leave the driveway being reminded by my Dad to wave, but once out of eye shot we would tear open that box and start passing out the cookies. We were not merely indulged by my Dad but instructed by him to do so. None of those cookies ever made it home.
        I had always thought that my Grandmother Katie Gildea Fischer had made the all the cookies and cupcakes but I found out many years ago that my Great Aunt Mary Gildea"Mamie" had worked for a baker at one time and she and my Aunt Elizabeth Jane Gildea "Sr. Mary Daria" did most of the baking. Aunt Daria and Aunt Honey sent me some of their recipes, one handwritten, the other typed on Aunt Honey's old manual typewriter. These are recipes you will find below.
       Now that they are all departed from this earth, I can admit that I did not make nor did I ever eat the Fruit Cake. That brick like Christmas delicacy they sent each year was religated to the freezer until sufficient time had elapsed to make my disposing of it a guilt-free necessity.