Pie makes everything better

My students were talking about pie yesterday, all the pies they expect to see at Thanksgiving dinner and which kind they like best, when I suddenly realized that I'd missed our annual Friday Pie Day on campus. For years, on the last Friday before Thanksgiving the College served pie during the noon hour to any employee who cared to come and get it. 

How wonderful it was to gather with faculty, staff, and administrators in the middle of the day to chomp down on pumpkin, apple, blueberry, banana cream, or many other types of pie, with or without whipped cream on top--and when the pandemic prevented us from eating pie face-to-face in an enclosed space, we could pick up individually packaged wedges of pie outside a classroom building and eat them in our offices or stand and eat outdoors while socially distancing.

But this year, no Friday Pie Day. I never even heard any mention of it in Faculty Council, but I assume that the ongoing budget crunch put the kibosh on pie, just when we're all in need of a morale boost. What a pity! There are few situations in life that can't be improved by a timely slice of pie.

I won't be baking pies this week because my daughter will do the honors.  I'm afraid the pie-crust gene skipped a generation: my mother made good pie crust and my daughter's pie crusts are fabulous while mine are...not. A few weeks ago I visited a dying friend in Jackson and stopped at the Amish store along the way to buy giant apples so fresh they went snap when I cut into them, from which I made two apple pies. The resident pie-eaters agree that those were the best-tasting apple pies I've ever made, but the crusts were thin, hard, and not at all flaky. 

But an imperfect pie is immeasurably better than no pie at all, which is what we received on Friday Pie Day. I know we have many more important problems to worry about on campus, but I won't believe the College has recovered from its budget crisis until I see a room full of campus employees happily eating pie.