Moon Pies and Memories

Abstract

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Pie is an icon in American South, where both its image and its taste evoke memories of country stores and their agrarian worlds. If we Google Pies, 3,060,000 references appear on subjects that range from art and literature to festivals, recipes, and astrology. In his entry on Moon in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Tom Rankin explains that Chattanooga Bakery in Chattanooga marketed product as the original marshmallow sandwich. The delicacy consists of quarter inch of marshmallow sandwiched between two cookies about four inches in diameter. The sandwich is then coated with chocolate, banana, coconut, and vanilla frosting. (1) Earl Mitchell invented moon pie in 1919 when he worked for Chattanooga Bakery. While visiting a company store at a coal mine in Kentucky, Mitchell asked miners what kind of cookie they would like in their lunch pails. They said they preferred a big one. Mitchell then asked what size cookie should be, and miners pointed to moon. His son Ed Mitchell Jr. recalls: Pie was a big seller, especially in coal fields where they didn't make much money. And when they bought something, they wanted to get best bargain. And there they were getting a great big pie for a nickel. I'm sorry dad didn't patent that thing. I'd have a Cadillac on each foot. (2) To explore how Pie has shaped lives of southerners on a personal level, a few years ago I spoke by phone with several friends who generously offered their thoughts about tasty treat and its importance in their lives. Each speaker is a distinguished figure whose work on American South is well known, and they responded warmly to topic. (3) AUTHOR LEE SMITH ON MOON PIES, WHOOPIE PIES, AND HER CHILDHOOD FAMILY TRIPS: I have always loved them. We always ate them as children, and when I think about them I have fond memories. We took our lunch to school, because we never had school lunches. And we had a lot of Pies in our lunches. We took them on car trips because they were all wrapped up in their little wrappers. At a certain point, when everybody in car would start getting really loud, we would get out Pies. In Maine, we noticed an enormously popular thing that is regarded as a particularly Maine item: Whoopie Pie. A Whoopie Pie looks like a giant Pie. They are size of a small cake--not real high like a layer cake. It has two fairly dense chocolate layers with a mixture in between that is very like mixture in a Pie. There are several famous roadside diners that specialize in their version of Whoopie Pie. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE LATE DOUG MARLETTE, AUTHOR AND CARTOONIST, ON HOW MOON PIES ARE MORE THAN A CLICHE: Over years, Mr. Campbell, president of Pies, would send me big cases of Pies in New York. I introduced a lot of New Yorkers to marshmallow treat. I have a novel [Magic Time, 2006] that is set in Mississippi, and I have a minor incident involving Pies that I couldn't resist putting in because it is just such a part of a backdrop, it has become a cliche. How do you infuse cliches with meaning? That has become my entire job as a cartoonist. Pies are one of those things that we all think we know. I try to do that in cartoon and in novel. It was funny in Northeast, in New York, to see reaction because they had never seen Pies. I had Pies falling from sky, which was inspired by [the cartoonist and satirist] R. Crumb. It is kind of like kudzu. It has a mysterious, mystical quality. It is like a Rorschach test. I am attracted to these things as a professional purveyor of metaphors and symbols. These are all larger than life, more than sum of parts. They are more than marshmallow and cake. My new novel is set in Civil Rights period in Mississippi, and I have one of main characters, a guy who is down from Detroit, become addicted to Pies during his stay. …