pie
As Christmas approaches, with all of its feasts, we start thinking of all the goodies we will make and eat. For many people, pie is a big part of holiday meals, not to mention other meals year-round. People just simply love pie. They would bake them to share or give as gifts, and especially to have with tea when guests came by, but the one thing I can’t imagine is any kind of worship involving pie. Nevertheless…
In 1644, an English statesman named Oliver Cromwell, came up with the totally irrational idea that pie was a pagan form of pleasure, so he banned pie. The eating of pie, baking pies, even thinking about pie. Well, maybe not exactly, but for the next sixteen years, no one could eat pie. So, like the prohibition years that would come about in the future, the eating of pie went…underground.
I can’t imagine having to bake and eat a pie in secret. For one thing, you can smell a pie baking. The aroma fills the house, and in the 1600s, they didn’t have a conventional oven like we have today. Dutch ovens were the first ovens used for baking. The pot would be embedded in the hot coals and ashes, and then more coals would be placed on its flat lid. Really, any large iron pot could be used as a Dutch oven. Double boilers were also used at this time. This meant that the aroma of the pie filled the area even more, because of the open chimney or the open pit in the outdoors where the pie was baked. I’m not sure if a violation of this new prohibitive law was a fine, jail, or death, but it was certainly something that made people realize that they must really want to bake that pie, if they would take such a risk for the chance to bake one.
Finally, in 1660, the Restoration leaders lifted the ban on pie baking, and the people rejoiced. I don’t know if 
they went as crazy about getting back to eating pie as they did the end of the Prohibition years, but I would imagine that there were a few gatherings to celebrate the new-found freedom. These days we can’t imagine such a silly idea concerning pie, but with every revelation, there must first have been a misconception. Oliver Cromwell somehow saw something in pie that made him believe the way he did, so seriously that he would make a law. Perhaps, it was his own addiction to pie that made him think it must be bad…not that I know that he was addicted to pie, but people have given up food and drink items for that reason for centuries. In fact, people have had confused ideas when it comes to religion for centuries.
About a year and 4 months ago, while I was researching my family tree, I came across someone else who was researching his family tree, and my Aunt Ruth, my dad’s sister was in that tree. Since his name and his user name were not the same, I contacted him to ask what his relation to my Aunt Ruth was. I was quite surprised to hear that he was my aunt’s grandson, Larry. That was strange too in that my mom had just said that she had wanted to get in touch with Shirley, my Aunt Ruth’s daughter, because she wanted to give her our grandmother’s wedding dress and we had been out of touch with that side of the family since Aunt Ruth’s passing in 1992. This all seemed too amazing to be simply chance. I believe it was a journey the Lord wanted our families to take, and one that would turn out to be a journey we would cherish for the rest of our lives.
Meeting up with Larry in the very near future seemed very unlikely given the fact that he was in the service and stationed in Korea. To further complicate matters, he planned to stay in Korea following his retirement. When Larry retired however, things in Korea had changed. The place he had intended to work, had implemented a hiring freeze. There was no work there for him. Larry and his son, Nehemiah returned to Washington state where his family lives. The job situation there was no better, until a friend suggested that he go to truck driving school. Larry was unsure that he would be able to learn to drive a truck, but with his friend’s encouragement, he went to school and found that this was a perfect fit for him. He loves driving truck.
Yesterday, Larry’s route found him driving through Wyoming. He posted a picture saying that it was a picture of the sunset in Wyoming. I asked where he was in Wyoming, and at the same time his mom was asking the same question. When she found that he was in Casper, she called me and told me. She gave me his phone number, and I called my mom and sister, Cheryl. Within half an hour, mom, Cheryl, her granddaughter, Aleesia, my grandson Caalab, and I were sitting at Perkins, having pie and a great visit with Larry. It was like coming full circle for our families. We had not seen them in 20 years, and yet it felt like just yesterday. The crazy thing about it is that neither Larry, being his family’s photographer, nor I, the one who uses pictures every day to tell the stories I tell on my blog, thought for one minute about taking a picture to commemorate the visit. Can you believe it?? I hope Larry’s route will soon find him in Casper again, and since he has my phone number now, he can let us know ahead of time, so we can have a longer visit, and bring more of the family…and take pictures!!!
