When my three siblings and I were growing up we, like all young children, often heard tails of our parents’ upbringing. How simple their lives were. How different the times were. Blah, blah, blah we get it. But there are a few stories that have stuck in my mind over the years. For instance, the one about little Johnny Ball who was caught by a neighbor as he was ‘discretely’ relieving himself behind a too-skinny tree in the front yard, (likely experiencing the whole ostrich with his head in the sand phenomenon…if I can’t see them, they definitely can’t see me!). Mama Ball also enjoys telling the one about how she was known as the best kisser in her high school. The story comes complete with a tour of her favorite kissing corners at Page High School (no, this is not a joke).
But the story I remember the most about my mom’s childhood would have to be the one where she and the other students on her bus convinced their driver to stop at a convenience store every day on the way home from school so that she could buy herself an RC Cola and a Moon Pie. See, as my mom tells it she lived out in the coun’ry (a.k.a. a gorgeous house on a golf course that was just a little off the beaten path J) and there is nothing like the combination of an RC Cola and a Moon Pie to put on smile on a Southern Belle’s face. In fact, she loves the RC/MP combo so much that I had to buy her a box of moon pies and hand deliver them on my last trip home…since, for some crazy reason, Genuardi’s doesn’t sell this delicacy.
Now we always thought the combination of an RC Cola and a moon pie was a little strange, not to mention somewhat nauseating if eaten every day after school. But, our mom insisted that the pairing of the RC and the Moon Pie was second to none. So you could imagine the frantic phone call my sweet mama received when I discovered that on June 21st, 2010, my new home state of Tennessee will be hosting the 16th Annual RC Cola and Moon Pie Festival! That’s right. A whole festival dedicated to that favorite after school snack, complete with watermelon spitting and pig calling contests and the cutting of the world’s largest moon pie. I seriously can’t make this stuff up.
So apparently, my mom was not the only one who saw the value in this unexpected culinary combination. And as a result she has informed me that she will be “hitching up her tractor” and meeting me in Bell Buckle, TN to experience this heaven-on-earth for herself. And just to prove to you that this celebration is legit, I will leave you with a little blurb and some pictures found on the website for the one and only RC Cola and Moon Pie Festival…
"RC and Moon Pie have always gone together in Southern tradition like pinto beans and cornbread or biscuits and gravy. No one is completely sure how these two products became so eternally linked, although local legend has it that it was started by farmers who only came to town seasonally to buy supplies and sell crops. The RC Cola, being the largest and cheapest soda, and the Moon Pie, being the largest and cheapest snack, were the treats of choice for poor farmers looking for a bargain." (Nashville Examiner Online 2009)
Just some people professing their love for the RC Cola and the Moon Pie
Pig calling contest
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