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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Moon Pie is an icon in the American South, where both its image and its taste evoke memories of country stores and their agrarian worlds. If we Google Moon Pies, 3,060,000 references appear on subjects that range from art and literature to festivals, recipes, and astrology. In his entry on "Moon Pies" in the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Tom Rankin explains that the Chattanooga Bakery in Chattanooga marketed the product as "the original marshmallow sandwich." The delicacy consists of "one 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 the moon pie in 1919 when he worked for the 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 the cookie should be, and the miners pointed to the moon. His son Ed Mitchell Jr. recalls: Moon Pie was a big seller, especially in the coal fields where they didn't make much money. And when they bought something, they wanted to get the 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 the Moon Pie has shaped the lives of southerners on a personal level, a few years ago I spoke by phone with several friends who generously offered their thoughts about the tasty treat and its importance in their lives. Each speaker is a distinguished figure whose work on the American South is well known, and they responded warmly to the 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 Moon 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 the car would start getting really loud, we would get out the Moon Pies. In Maine, we noticed an enormously popular thing that is regarded as a particularly "Maine" item: the Whoopie Pie. A Whoopie Pie looks like a giant Moon Pie. They are the 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 the mixture in a Moon Pie. There are several famous roadside diners that specialize in their version of the Whoopie Pie. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE LATE DOUG MARLETTE, AUTHOR AND CARTOONIST, ON HOW MOON PIES ARE MORE THAN A CLICHE: Over the years, Mr. Campbell, the president of Moon Pies, would send me big cases of Moon Pies in New York. I introduced a lot of New Yorkers to the marshmallow treat. I have a novel [Magic Time, 2006] that is set in Mississippi, and I have a minor incident involving Moon 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. Moon Pies are one of those things that we all think we know. I try to do that in the cartoon and in the novel. It was funny in the Northeast, in New York, to see the reaction because they had never seen Moon Pies. I had Moon Pies falling from the 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 the sum of the parts. They are more than marshmallow and cake. My new novel is set in the Civil Rights period in Mississippi, and I have one of the main characters, a guy who is down from Detroit, become addicted to Moon Pies during his stay. … |
