One of my dictionaries describes the word pie as: a baked food having a sweet, savory, or meat filling, prepared in a pastry-lined pan or dish and often topped with a pastry crust. Alternately, the second definition mentions a layer cake with a filling of cream, jelly, or the like, (like Boston Cream Pie that is really a cake?).
When I think of pie, I think of New England. My mother was one to bake the most delicious apple pies I have ever tasted. She’d get real fancy about the process, too, making extra dough so she could cut out shapes of mini-apples to apply to the top pie crust for decorative purposes. Her specialties were apple pie, pumpkin pie, cherry pie, and mincemeat pie, and with a big family, she make all four kinds during the holidays.
I also developed a great fondness for the “roly-polys” that she would make by rolling out the extra dough and slathering it with butter, sugar, cinnamon and then doing just what their name indicates: rolling the dough up and slicing small units to bake. They would always be done before the pies and I’d hang around the kitchen to get first chance at them, so hot from the oven, they’d burn, but were oh so delicious!
Pie bespeaks of what a Yankee does. Listen to this definition:
To a southerner, a Yankee is anyone who lives north of the Mason-Dixie line. To a northerner, it is someone from New England. To a New Englander, it is someone from Vermont, and to a Vermonter, it’s someone who eats apple pie for breakfast — with a knife. (Original source for quote unknown).
As my husband, Jim, said on one of his food recipes, we like to eat pie for breakfast (doesn’t matter which kind), but we prefer to use a fork!
This brings us to the word, “Yankee.” Curious as to its etymology, I searched for its origin. According to one source, the word probably derived from “Janke” – a Dutch name that was in current use beginning in the 1680s. It can mean “little Jan,” or “little John.” The first recorded use of the word “Yankee,” as an umbrella term, was in 1765, when it was used to refer to anyone living in New England.
The term has undergone significant transformations over the years and has been, in turn, both derisive and affirmative.
Whenever I think of any words, my mind tries to recall instances of usage. In this case, the first association I remember is Mark Twain’s novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, in which the 19th century protagonist from a small Connecticut town is transported back to the time of King Arthur (528 A.D.)
Another reference to “Yankees” is the abbreviated form “Yanks.” This appears in the chorus of the song, “Over There,” — “The Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming…” The lyrics and the music were both written by George M. Cohan in 1917, at the time of World War I.
Before that, during the Civil War, anyone who supported the Union was considered to be a Yankee. There have been “proud Yankees,” and there have been “dam*ed Yankees,” and there are fans of the “Yankees” baseball team. Of all of them, I’m happy to report that I’m one Yankee who is going to have a piece of Mincemeat Pie for breakfast. Please pass the whipped cream.
P.S. The Museum news report is still in the works … stay tuned!
Patricia Cummings
