Some light, simple, personal history for the day…
As I said… I like good pies… apple, cherry, coconut cream, lemon meringue, etc., etc. Not only do I like good pies, but I like to make good pies. I think the older I get, the more serious I am about making good pies… better. They are tasty, though I need to refine my skills at making the edges of my crusts a little “prettier.” I have to say though that I’m taking the design of the lattice crust work atop my Montmorency Cherry pies much more seriously, and bordering on artwork.
So where does this passion for pie-making have its roots?
When I was growing up, my Grandmother Hilliard (1903-1994) made the best darn pies… apple, hack-apple, mincemeat (not the traditional type, however… thankfully), lemon meringue (I haven’t quite mastered making that type of pie from scratch), and coconut cream. Seems to me, I also recall having a few tasty pies at my great-grandmother Hilliard’s (1879-1982) house on a couple of occasions. When my Grandmother Bricker made pies, I was usually there in the kitchen with her, using pop-bottle tops as mold-forms, cutting out impressions from the left-over crust, sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar (cinnamon often being one of the key ingredients in about everything she makes), baking them, and making a tasty treat.
Of course, there is also some history in this effort to make good pies.
First, there is a family story…
I never knew her, but have heard stories about my great-great grandmother Moore (1865-1951) and her take on pie-making. It’s said that she would throw out pies if they didn’t come out tasting just right.
Then, we have history that I didn’t learn through family stories, but discovered through research.
I know (having just discovered this through research in the last few years) that my great-great-great grandfather, Robert McKinney (1808-1876), was, in 1860, working as a confectioner in Clear Spring, Maryland. A decade later, in 1870, my great-great-great grand aunts, Mary H. Moore (1827-1893) and Elizabeth Margaret Moore Hower (1821-1902), were working, quite possibly in the same confectionary shop that Robert McKinney was working at in 1860, in Clear Spring. I can’t figure out quite where that confectioner shop was in Clear Spring (many of the original period buildings are still intact on the main street through the old town).
That reminds me… I was really excited last summer when I saw, for the first time, a confectioner shop/confectionery (labeled as such) in Harpers Ferry. I had never seen a 19th century confectioner shop interpreted before. 
So, I could, to some degree, imagine what the one must have been like in Clear Spring, where my different family members worked. I can only imagine the variety of sweets that these confectioners made in their time. Makes me hungry…
So, knowing the legacy left from nearly 201 years of pie-making/makers, I suppose, therefore, that I take my pie-making a little more seriously.
History can inspire us in interesting and seemingly unusual ways. I have no doubt that we should embrace and enjoy the manner in which history weaves its way into our daily lives. Yet, we should also take care how we fill the gaps in-between historical fact and contemporary memory. We should also be careful how we weave the history of the past into contemporary memory, making sure not to make both, one in the same. There are “lines” between real memory and history beyond our memory. We can blur this line at times to satisfy something within ourselves. That’s fine, but when it comes to conveying history to others, we should make sure not to blur the lines too much to the point where we merge self-indulgence for history and our contemporary memory with historical fact. The often-resulting “historical memory” is distinctly different from the type of real, experienced memory that is formed from personal experience… of the person telling the history.
Cenantua's Blog 
Craig Swain
September 4, 2009
Interesting, Robert. But would you say that years in the Navy, with that gedunk bar and all, could have de-sensitized you to the pies?
Just to show you how geography becomes a setting to our palates, my “food” memories are of pecan pies (two trees grew in our front yard), watermelon, cornbread, and fried catfish.
cenantua
September 4, 2009
I didn’t have a great deal of experience with the gedunk bar, but, being a submariner, ya know… we got some up-scaled grub, including cheesecake with strawberry topping on Sunday along with our surf and turf. Now, the cheesecake wasn’t exactly the best I ever tasted, but I don’t think I was ever de-sensitized because of it.
Speaking of good grub… where did you go for Army ROTC camp? I was at Ft. Knox and, back then (1985… I don’t know about these days), we were able to hit the O-Club on the weekends. Nice Belgian waffles!
cenantua
September 4, 2009
Oh… and in the Valley, we had pecan pie as well, but no trees… and cornbread, and watermelon… but I didn’t experience catfish until later.
David S
September 4, 2009
oh man, i have to get back in the habit of reading your blog! Pies… now you’re talking my language!
cenantua
September 6, 2009
Hi David, Good to hear from you again. Hope all is well with you!
Sherree Tannen
September 6, 2009
Hi Robert,
I am again struck by the similarities and differences in our experiences of growing up in Virginia in families that have been in the state for a long time. You said that your grandmother was born in 1903. My grandmother was born 1905. I was born in 1955. I grew up in my grandmother’s house. She, in turn, along with her siblings and cousins, all lived within walking distance of their grandparents and lived with them half the time. They–my great great grandparents–were born in 1844. Thus, they were of the Civil War generation, as were your great great grandparents.
My grandmother used to bake not pies, but biscuits, almost every night, and in the summer, she would stay up late and let me stay up with her. That is when she would talk. She had a wealth of oral history to tell–much of which I have verified. Also her sister, my great aunt, born in 1900, grew up in the household of her grandparents, born in 1844, and told her own version of the same oral history, as did several of her cousins. The stories told have proven remarkably true. The details are embellished, yet the core of the story is true. This tradition of oral history is a very important part of the culture of my part of the mountains. I have within my own memory, a living memory passed down through generations. The Cherokee also have a tradition of oral history.
I am wondering at our similarities and differences in culture. Where did they come from? If you think about it, though, maybe it is not that difficult to understand. The English, the Scots, the Scots Irish, the German, and the Cherokee are all very different people, so the culture would be different, as would the intermingling of the cultures in different areas. A monolithic south would be the oddity.
Have a great day, Robert,
Sherree
PS. Do you make key lime pie? That is my favorite. Also, do you know any history on key lime pie? I didn’t start eating it until I moved to Florida.
cenantua
September 6, 2009
Hi Sherree, You know, my family was more leaning toward yeast rolls than biscuits. That said, however, I enjoy a very good biscuit now and then… and I make my own. Though I have grown fond of one biscuit mix in particular. The family yeast roll recipe seems to stump me. I can never get them to taste as good as when my grandmothers made them. I think it might have something to do with the scalding of the milk.
I recall many a family story told when around food… or with food cooking. I’ve verified and clarified some of those stories over time. Slight historical hiccups in “historical memory” usually. Like the parlor game where a sentence is whispered from one person to another, across a room of people, the stories become distorted over time… some more so than others.
I like key lime pie a lot, but haven’t tried to make it. Not familiar with the story behind it either.
Sherree Tannen
September 6, 2009
Robert,
No problem. Cherry pie is just as good, and it looks like you have mastered that one. You are going to post a picture of one of your pies, aren’t you, so that your readers can enjoy a virtual dessert? Just think of all of the calories we’ll save, lol.
Have a good one, Robert. This is a wonderful post. It says a lot about you, and about your heritage. Sherree
cenantua
September 6, 2009
Whoa! Hold on a sec… ya gotta tell us about the key lime pie story now. What’s the history behind it?
Sherree Tannen
September 7, 2009
Oh, lol, Robert, if I knew the history of key lime pie, you have to know by now that I WOULD be telling it, lol again.
But now that you bring it up…………….the foods that I have added to my “favorites” list over time, do reflect an intermingling of cultures in my own lifetime. For instance, I love lox and bagels, gefilte fish, and herring. That is because I love my husband of twenty years (not to mention his cooking!) Then, there is the matter of the lemon and orange trees that are out in my yard, and what I have learned in sixteen years just watching them fruit every season. (Like, for instance, when the blossoms first bloom on the trees, I have to pick the fruit that is still on them or the trees don’t fruit next season) Lemon trees (which have thorns on them) were not part of my life in Virginia. But then there were the holly trees, and the pine trees, and dogwoods, and the first winter snow. Life is interesting, Robert. I am asking for prosperity and abundance for you. I hope you find a job that allows you to stay near your trees. Sherree
cenantua
September 8, 2009
I’m rather fond of trees, especially those that bear fruit, but I don’t mind planting trees elsewhere… 🙂
Sherree Tannen
September 8, 2009
Go for it, Robert! Good Luck! Sherree
Pat Hilliard-Moore
October 15, 2011
Also remember Mom baking hoecake or a flat bread and those delicious cream pies, made with real cream and nutmeg.
Robert Moore
October 15, 2011
Those nutmeg cream pies were good…