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 kept her grandmother’s secret recipe.

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

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 often used “mom and apple pie” as a short way to say things Americans loved.

Soldiers in both world wars missed apple pie.

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

It caused a bomb scare.

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

The writer studied this pie in a class about American history after the war.

For a school task about symbols of America, he gave a photo of a bald eagle.

His teacher was not impressed.

Two other students showed a McDonald’s pie.

They said it showed big 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 pies made in large numbers changed how he saw America.

He saw the strains and conflicts in the country.

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

Still, the writer likes a homemade pie better.

He will not share the secret recipe.