Time for Pie

Sometimes when we go to an auction--I will bid on something I should't.  I admit, after all these years of buying--I will bid on something that just grabs me--without a great deal of thought of whether it is too odd to sell.  I will buy something and worry about how to unload it later.

Take pie plates for example.  Lots of pie plates.  Like 100 of them.

This is just a sampling of someone's collection of tin and other metal pie plates that we purchased--most of them with the name of the brand of pie embossed on the piece.

Take this one for example.  Helen Gates it says.  The pie dish has holes in the bottom which help the pie stay nice and  flakey and not get a soggy crust when baked.  My perfunctory research did not turn up a commercial pie operation for Helen Gates pies.

It did turn up a now deceased lady in Indiana--with that name--and her obituary mentioned her percolator was always on and she was known for her cakes and "mile high pies."  This conjures up a picture in my head--of a really tall, really wonderful lemon meringue pie-- With those pretty little peaks of  meringue that looks like ocean waves and disappears like a cloud when you taste it.  (not the sort of tough gummy top with lots of beads of sugar that seem to plague my two forays into lemon meringue pie)

Helen of commercial pie fame will continue to be a mystery.  But I know for certain--I bet our Indiana Helen was a very kind and popular lady--especially at church potlucks.