Apple pie is a symbol of American life.

It is tied to the idea of motherhood.

The writer remembers baking pies with his family.

His mother kept her grandmother's secret recipe.

Then his girlfriend joined them for the first time.

His mother said she must marry him now.

She did marry him.

People said the pie was American.

But it did not start in the United States.

Colonists brought apples over.

Johnny Appleseed spread them widely.

Reports from the last century used "mom and apple pie" for American things.

Soldiers in both world wars missed apple pie.

One mother from Texas sent one to Nikita Khrushchev in New York.

It caused a bomb scare.

In the 1960s, McDonald's made a fried apple pie.

The writer studied it in a history class.

The class was about postwar America.

He had to show a symbol of America.

He gave a photo of a bald eagle.

His teacher was not happy.

Two other students showed a McDonald's pie.

They said it showed companies replacing home cooking.

The teacher kept that pie on his blackboard for years.

It looked fresh when he checked it later.

The writer says the mass-made pie changed his view of America.

He saw its strains and conflicts.

McDonald's has brought back the fried pie.

It is for the nation's 250th anniversary.

Still, the writer likes a homemade pie more.

He will not share the secret recipe.