Apple pie has long been a symbol of American life.

It is closely tied to the idea of motherhood.

The writer remembers baking pies with his family.

His mother guarded her grandmother’s secret recipe.

When his girlfriend joined them for the first time, his mother said she would now have to marry him.

And she did.

The pie’s American identity was claimed, even though it did not start in the United States.

Colonists brought apples over, and Johnny Appleseed spread them widely.

Reports from the last century often used “mom and apple pie” as a short way to say beloved Americana.

Soldiers in both world wars missed apple pie.

One Texas mother sent one to Nikita Khrushchev in New York, which caused a bomb scare.

In the 1960s, McDonald’s introduced a fried apple pie.

The writer studied this pie in a postwar American history class.

For a task on symbols of America, he sent in a photo of a bald eagle.

But his teacher was not impressed.

Two other students showed a McDonald’s pie as a symbol of companies replacing home cooking.

The teacher kept that pie on his blackboard for years.

When he checked it later, it still looked fresh.

The writer says that mass-produced pie marked a change in how he saw America, with its strains and conflicts.

McDonald’s has brought back the fried pie for the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Still, the writer prefers a homemade version.

But he will not share the secret recipe.