You Persist for Pie: Redwood City, California 1969

You love the feeling of rolling out that tiny little pack of crust mix onto a cutting board, cleaning up after every step. You set yourself a task and won't be criticized for making the Smith's house a mess. You do your very best to leave the house in the condition you found it. This was of course absurd and becomes nothing but a mantra to you, as clearly, no one was going to miss that someone had been stinking up their house while they were on vacation. Nevertheless, you are determined that you personally will not leave a clue, anywhere. 

It would have been a sight, you squatting down over your big belly, searching out the pie pan and rolling pin in the bottom don't-use-much cabinet, if anyone had been looking. Elfreda was more likely to buy her pies than make them from real scratch, but those ingredients were not here. The dough felt heavy and oily, but you were not going to make a big deal out of a less thank flaky pie crust, which is exactly what your mom taught you to make. You thought of this pie as pretty darn celebratory. Maybe you could celebrate the man on the moon and this little baby coming some day soon. You smile over this baby while you roll that nasty crust-like material into a beautiful rendition of a perfect pie crust. You smile over this baby, even though the crust slipped under its own greasy weight, creating slubs around the bottom of the pan. Never mind, your crimps were perfect. 

You have one last egg and are not at all worried the boys will take it, because they hadn't left their den. You don't even know where they peed. You think about punishing them for being so loud, and smelly, and for ignoring you completely. You think about eating that whole pie yourself, not even telling them a pie had been made. You boil this business in your head while you beat that egg to smithereens. Open the can, spoon the pumpkin into the pyrex glass bowl. Mix so thoroughly. Open the milk carton, exactly. Add the milk slowly to the pumpkin, not too wet, not too dry. Mix mix sprinkle Pumpkin Pie Spice mix mix. Perfect texture. Fill the crust. You wish the the oven was a double so you didn't have to bend over to slide your little beauty into the preheated oven. Stuffy and too hot, too sweltering, you persist for pie. You prop yourself on the family room couch again, keeping your nose nearby. You are a girl who cooks with her nose. By mid afternoon, that beautiful pie was cooling on a rack on the counter and you were back to the bedroom for rest and some reading while the pie cooled.