Lattice Top Cherry Pie

May I ask you a question? Do you have a special “something” that if you are asked it is your go-to? I’m sure you do, everyone probably does. It usually is not too hard to come up with something you like above a lot of other good things. When you are younger, it can be tough because there is so much to like, and the world is so much bigger but as an adult you are likely more focused and have trimmed down the list of things to a few.

Over the years as my birthday or Father’s Day or something similar was approaching, Michelle and/or my girlies would come around and ask, “What would you like for your (birthday, etc.)? I like getting gifts but it’s not quite the big deal it used to be for sure. Not to brag, but I have enough shoes, gloves and house slippers. I’m also set with ties and cologne. At first, it was actually difficult to come up with something. I’m at a point in my life where I am getting rid of stuff versus accumulating stuff. Then one day I came up with the perfect gift for me and had it set up in the back of my mind when they came around to ask. I really wanted a Lattice Top Cherry Pie. If I can read your mind right about now, you just said to yourself….a what? Let me know if I should take my mind reading superpower and head to Las Vegas to do a residency at MGM.

I really do not like cake. I know, I know. I’m a bit off (stop laughing!). It’s okay but it truly is something that I usually turn down when it is offered. I don’t go much for brownies and that kind of stuff either. HOWEVER. If I am offered pie of any kind, I will pull up a chair to the kitchen counter with a Jethro Bodine size fork and plate and have at it. There is not much pie I don’t like but if cherry pie is available, Lord help us all.

My mom was not much of a baker, but her mom was for sure! My grandma Fordham could make pies, cookies and such that were so good you would slap your little brother! (or was that just me?). My mom told me about life at her house in Tallmadge when they were growing up. Saturday was baking day. Her and Grandma would bake all day, so they had stuff for the rest of the week. I could smell the story when she told it to me! But you know how it is, when you are young, and you hear “old people stories” you are not 100% sure that this is a straight up story that might be a smidge embellished. HOWEVER. I have a memory of when I was around 12 or so we had a family picnic out at my grandparents’ home during the summer. This is really my only memory of a good family time with my mom’s parents since they divorced soon after this, but it was the clarification I needed to know what mom was telling me was truth.

Anyway, this picnic could have been a Norman Rockwell painting. The house was out in the countryside of Ohio. The house was surrounded by fields, gardens, woods and very few other homes. There were no businesses or busy roads. All the houses I could see were my relatives. Everyone that had moved away came back. We sat under these two massive trees that were in the front year. Grandpa set up “tables” by putting together a bunch of sawhorses and covering them with white sheets. You could smell fresh cut grass and hear the adults talking and laughing. Grandma was busy getting all the food ready. My brother and I tried to stay out of the way but had to be told a bunch to go outside and play. My uncles and aunts were portaging the food from the house to the front yard. Benches and chairs were scouted from all over and set up next to the tables.

My brother and I were messing around on the porch and then we saw it…….Lattice Top Cherry Pies. There was also apple, blueberry, blackberry, rhubarb, strawberry. Oh my God, it was the Pie Hall of Fame cooling on the bannisters around the front porch. It stopped me in my tracks, and I got that Ralphie from Christmas Story goofy look on my face as I stared into the indescribable beauty that was in front of me. In fact, I think I did slap my brother.

We get called to the table and the feast got underway. The food was delicious and right out of their gardens. Even at my young age, I knew to save some room for that pie on the porch. Grandpa was making homemade ice cream in a churn too. I told you it was Norman Rockwellish! Dinner winds down and the adults are all yapping and letting their food settle and my grandma has kept her eyes on me the whole time and asks, “Marky (she’s the only one that was allowed to call me that), did you save any room for pie? I was enshrined in the pie eating hall of fame later that day!

From that day forward I was hooked on Lattice Top Cherry Pie. Fast forward a couple decades and Michelle asks me what I want for my birthday one year soon after we got married and I surprise her with a real answer other than “nothing, I’m fine.” I tell her, I would love a Lattice Top Cherry Pie like my grandma used to make. She encourages me to think a little bigger and I stand my ground. It takes some work, but she agrees, and it was glorious. Every year after that, she got the same response. It became a running joke around the house, and they would ask me every year even though they knew what the answer would be. I would tell them that I’m really not that hard to figure out. A simple man with simple needs (no jokes and laughing!).

When Michelle passed away in 2021, my longtime friends here in Georgia got together and bought me a Lattice Top Cherry Pie and had it sent to the house from a really good bakery in Atlanta. They may have had to take out a second mortgage to do it but it was a great gift. One of those gifts that touches your heart from people that REALLY know you, quirks and all.

Today’s blog is about my most recent Lattice Top Cherry Pie gift from people who really surprised me with my favorite gift.

But First…A Joke:

A doctor and a lawyer meet at a party. As they try to chat, they’re constantly interrupted. The other partygoers keep describing their medical problems to the doctor, wanting free advice. Finally, the frustrated doctor asks the lawyer, “How do you stop people from asking you for legal advice when you’re not at work?”

“I give it to them,” the lawyer says, “and then I mail them a bill.”

The doctor decides to give it a try. A couple days later, he goes out to mail a stack of invoices to people who bothered him at the party. In his mailbox, he finds a bill from the lawyer.

Bonus Dad Joke:

Q: What’s the worst thing somebody can do to your kid?

A: Give him a whistle.

A Verse to Contemplate:

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come for you. John 14:18

Have I Told You This One?

This past weekend, I got to take something off of my Bucket List and it was better than I could have ever imagined, and I had set a pretty high bar for this one! I was asked to be a Rector for a Tres Dias weekend back at the first of the year and God put together an incredible team over the past seven months or so and we had the weekend in the North Georgia mountains this past Thursday through Sunday.

This is a spiritual retreat, and the camp is home to about 120 guys for the weekend. The Rector is the guy who is responsible for managing the program and it is an absolute honor to be trusted with that task. Over the twenty years I have been involved with it I have had the privilege of getting to know some of the best people on the planet and have become friends with a lot of them. We have 4 events every year and this weekend was #152. There is a ton of details, planning, timing, budgeting, organizing and the like and with my personality it is easy to get consumed by the details.

The weekend kicks off on Thursday night and gets off to a good start. Friday goes pretty good too. As some of the nerves go away and I actually start to enjoy myself, I am in my sweet spot. It’s a bunch of people and I’m meeting and making a lot of new friends and hugging the necks of a lot of old friends. Guys who really care about each other and their families. Guys who want your best and push you to be your best. Guys who love the Lord and want others to do so. As I’m sitting and thinking late on Friday evening my mind wonders back to Michelle for a minute or a thousand. I wish she could be a part of this with me. I wanted her to be proud of me and see how happy I was to be in a place that I hoped I would be someday. I was blown away by the guys on the weekend. They supported me and each other tremendously. I felt like it was God honoring and that men’s lives were impacted and hopefully changed.

Saturday night usually is a real nice dinner and is a surprise to the Rector put on by the Kitchen team. As we made our way through the conference on Saturday I started looking forward to that dinner. I knew it was going to be delicious, and it is such a nice meal because by then most of the guys have started to build new friendships and the conversation level in the room is way louder that it was on Thursday and Friday evening. That makes my heart smile.

As I’m sitting there enjoying a full course meal the Kitchen guys start picking up the plates and ask me if
I am ready for dessert. I’ve been trying to watch the sugar and calorie intake, but my defenses usually take a vacation when we are up at the Camp. I say, “you bet, bring it out. What are we having?” “The fellas look at me and say, “just wait and see.” They go into the kitchen and come back with Lattice Top Cherry Pie.

What a wonderful touch by the Kitchen team. I am forever thankful and grateful. I so needed that at that time. I enjoyed the delicious dessert made especially for me by my good buddies. It was one of many things that made it a weekend that I never will forget. Maybe, just maybe, Michelle was with me on the mountain top on Saturday night.

Thank you, brothers, nice touch!

A Prayer:

Heavenly Father, cover me in Your goodness all the days of my life. Renew my mind when I question Your goodness because of my circumstances. You are my refuge and strength.

Book Recommendation:

A Gentle Thunder - Hearing God Through the Storm by Max Lucado (1995)

Music Recommendation:

Five Steps on the Sun by DarWin (2024)

Quote of the Day:

“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” - Steve Martin