"The pie man's coming! the pie man's coming! Mama can I have a nickel? the pie man's coming, he's next door already." Kids would get so excited when he occasionally came down our street because he spent most of his time and effort selling his pies everyday in the down town area of the town. His tall black hat would make him look ten feet tall a block away. He wore some type of long coat and held his pants up with a belt made of rope tied around his waist.

the pie man. Having never seen his name written, I spelled it here phonetically. His sweet potato pie was like golden brown divinity, and I don't mean that white candy made with nuts in it, I simply mean it was fit for the Gods. I can still taste it even though it was some sixty or more years ago. The time period I'm speaking of here was in the early thirties, the depression had gotten hard and tough with most taking pretty much for granted that it was here to stay for a while.

the country, I'd find it's time table varied quite a bit, probably due to local conditions. It's injected here and now primarily to show how scarce everyone's money was at that time. This is also why that poor ol'pie man sometimes had to leave the most populated down town areas and hunt all over for someone with an extra nickel to sell to. It also explains why his "quality control" was always kept up....no one could afford to lose a customer in those days. Another reason was many times when anyone found he had that extra nickel, certainly wanted to spend it on a real bona fide treat. Pi rah ree supplied that wonderful bit of heaven for only a nickel.

is interested in all forms of cooking, especially the old recipes and methods of cooking, his pies hold me completely at a loss for how they were prepared and what kind of ingredients used. Through experimentation, I recovered some of mother's recipes and methods. His pies still allude me. These pies were enjoyed and consumed so quickly as a child I have no idea what made them so good. But I do know that some of the people of that time used what we'd today call the dregs or leftovers to good advantage in pastry and cookies.

The terminology of today, he was a specialist, he'd made and marketed but one product and that one, by my memory at least, outstripped competitors.

Found in the grocery stores, probably made by some individual for the store. Various times in later years I've been approached by individual vendors selling so many different things, from peanuts to peanut brittle. First few times I received them with open mind, always remembering good old Pi rah ree and hoping to luck out again on something as wonderful as his pies were. Truthfully every last one has been a complete disappointment. Guess the ol'guy in that tall top hat "done" spoiled me for life.