Chapter 12: Guidance

That very afternoon came an announcement, over the school's public address system, that President Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. All students were dismissed and school did not resume until after his funeral, almost a full week later.

Thanksgiving came and went and then Christmas with the usual hurts and disappointments for Cookie on Christmas morning.

This year the family Christmas party was held at Cookie's house and she made sure that the house was very festively decorated and that the Christmas dinner was extra special for everyone.

She tried to make herself festive too, putting on a green skirt with a white blouse and a red sweater-vest and that made her feel in the holiday spirit, even as she stood off to the corner of the room, so as not to attract attention, watching her family members open their exchanged gifts.

That's when her cousin Kate came over to her holding the Kingsmen album her that Uncle Mike had bought for her. "Your dad is so super," Kate said, her smile so infectious that it made Cookie smile too, even though her father hadn't gotten her anything.

Looking her up and down now Kate asked, "Where'd you get that skirt and that vest? You look just like Christmas."

"Some clothes came for me before school started," Cookie explained. "This outfit was among the things I got. Do you like it?"

"Like it?" Kate exclaimed. "I want it!" and she looked around the room for Cookie's father.

"Uncle Mike," she yelled as she spotted him, and he looked up from the box of golf balls that he'd been unwrapping.

"What is it, Sweetheart?" he asked her.

"I want this outfit Cookie has on. I have another Christmas party to attend tomorrow and I want to wear it."

"Anything for you, Katie," Cookie's father called out. "Cookie, go take that stuff off and give it to Kate."

"Yes, Poppa," Cookie called back over the noise of all the relatives merrymaking around her. "Come up to my room," she told her cousin.

Cookie led Kate to her bedroom and Kate sat on the bed as Cookie removed her vest, skirt and blouse and stood there in just her panties and a loose camisole undershirt.

"God, who picked out this hideous wallpaper?" Kate exclaimed as Cookie set her clothes on the bed for her cousin.

"My mother did," Cookie replied as she opened the long closet to find something else to wear.

"Well she sure had rotten taste in wallpaper," Kate stated before her eyes locked on the closet full of clothes Cookie stood before. "Gosh," she blurted out, "standing up and walking to where Cookie stood, buttoning a yellow top she had pulled on. "Look at all these clothes! Someone gave them all to you? I want them!"

"They're all I have," Cookie said as Kate walked to the bedroom door and opened it.

"Dad! Uncle Mike!" she called out and both men came running and walked right into Cookie's bedroom with her still not fully dressed.

"What is it, Pumpkin?" Uncle Bryce asked her.

"These clothes Cookie has. Look at them all in her closet. I want them."

"You have enough clothes," her father told her. "Far better and more expensive clothes than these, Katie. You don't need any of her raggy junk."

"But they're not raggy, they're nice, Daddy. I want them."

"Sure," her Uncle Mike told her. "You just pick out whatever you want and she'll be happy to give it to you, sweetheart," he glared at Cookie now, "Isn't that right?"

"Yes, Poppa," Cookie said in resignation.

"Go ahead," Cookie's father encouraged his niece but Kate was already in the closet selecting things and setting them on the bed.

Both men chuckled as they left the room and Cookie sat heavily on the bed as she watched her cousin rifle through the few things in life that she actually owned.

"Have you got this skirt in yellow?" Kate asked, holding up a light-blue one with pleats.

"I'm not a department store," Cookie sadly stated.

Cousin Kate looked sharply back at her. "Is that in the nature of a smart remark? Do you want me to call Uncle Mike back up here and tell him what you said?"

"No, Kate. Please take what you want."

Cookie's Christmas, that year, was a net loss of three dresses, four skirts and five tops, not including the Christmas outfit.

When school resumed, after New Year, an announcement was made that all seventh grade students were to report to their guidance councilors for a one-time, instructional class. The boys were to see Mr. Garrett in room 13 and the girls to see Mrs. Shields in room 24.

Room 24 was a large room with chairs and no desks and Cookie sat in the second row as Mrs. Shields stood before her desk and watched all the girls come in.

Mrs. Shields was a slim, mature woman with her grey hair styled up on her head and wearing a light-brown, flower print dress and smart-looking high heel shoes.

Once everyone seemed to be there and seated, Mrs. Shields announced that she was the seventh grade girls' councilor for Pershing Junior High and that, if any of the girls had problems or questions, they should come to her office and talk to her. She told them that she would be available to them any time of the day and that all they need do is ask a teacher and they would get an immediate hall pass to see her.