“Do you want a cookie?” – Don Corrado Prizzi (Prizzi’s Honor, 1985)
I was looking for somewhere to take my wife for a week later in the month so I called up Fred who suggested we stay at the Big Cedar Lodge near Branson for a few days. I remembered driving through the grounds many years ago and thinking how I would have to come back and spend a few nights, which is what we’re finally going to do.
Fred was there near Christmas time. “It was magical,” he told me. He said he called them up in October to make his reservation. He actually wanted to be there New Year’s Eve, and when he told the reservation lady that she asked, “What year?” He said this year and she almost laughed at him.
She said it was highly unlikely there would be any cancellations, but asked if he preferred a room in one of the lodges or a cabin. He asked the difference in price and she said a room would be $300 and a cabin about $150 more than that.
“A night?” Fred asked.
“Yes sir, but as I say there probably won’t be anything available anyway.”
Fred says he acted disappointed but was kind of relieved. She took his name and number and said she would call if anything came available.
Two hours later his phone rang. “This is Linda from The Big Cedar Lodge, did we speak earlier?”
“Yes,” Fred said.
“Well, unbelievably we had a cancellation and I can get you those three nights of December 30, 31 and January 1.”
“The cabin or the lodge?” Fred asked.
“That’s the best news, it’s a cabin.”
So Fred and his girl friend headed east from Fayetteville towards the Big Cedar Lodge. “When we got close,” he reminisced, “the sky turned gray and it began lightly snowing. By the time we arrived the ground had patches of white everywhere. They still had their Christmas lights out, covering trees, buildings and the boat dock. It was beautiful.”
“Worth $450 a night?”
“At that time in my life, yeah, worth every penny.”
“But $450 a night, what, was Sinatra staying with you?”
Fred said they checked in and the great service began immediately. They were taken to their cabin and the bellman unloaded their luggage and built them a fire. They settled in to the Rockwell scene. A very few minutes went by and there was a knock at the cabin door. Fred answered and saw one of the staff standing there with a plate of warm cookies for them.
“Get out of here,” I said.
“I swear, and they were great.”
They enjoyed the fire awhile before going to to the Worman House on the grounds for dinner. “It was great too,” Fred said.
The next morning Fred said someone was leaving a paper and some more firewood on the front porch. He opened the door to greet the person and the man brought the wood in and started another fire. As he was leaving he turned to Fred and asked, “How are your cookies holding out?”
“I think we could do another round of those,” Fred told him.
“I’ll have some sent right down sir.”
That evening was New Year’s Eve and the vacationing couple decided to head to Branson for dinner and a show. “That was a mistake,” Fred said. “We should not have stepped out of Big Cedar for one second.”
The last night there they decided to watch a movie. Fred called the front desk and asked what he needed to do. They told him he could choose from hundreds of titles and he picked out three. Before getting off the phone the person said, “Are you OK on the cookies?”
“Hold on, let me check?”
“Hey honey, how we doing on the cookies?” He yelled.
“OK. Better bring some more when you come,” he told the person on the phone.
“Yes sir.”
“Those three days,” Fred told me, “ were one of the great pleasures I’ve ever experienced, with the season and the snow and the beauty of Big Cedar, it was just fantastic.”
“And the cookies, don’t forget them.”
“No, I’ll never forget the cookies.”
•••
I had the good fortune to play in the 8th Annual Pulaski County Bar Foundation Golf Scramble with friends Randy Morley, Jim Julian and J. Mark Davis. After popping it around a lot of spots on the course we ended up with a 54, which was looking like a winner for the longest time, until a 53 was turned in late.
And a well deserved thanks to Adam Crow of the Rose Firm for his efforts in putting together and coordinating this year’s event. Adam also won the long drive of the day.