Pecan Pie

A friend from South Carolina, Pat Martin, who is married to my great friend since childhood, George Martin, sent me one of her prize-winning pecan pies for Easter. My Grandmother Kiker-- my mother's mother-- made wonderful pecan pies. My grandparents had a big pecan tree in their front yard in Reidsville, North Carolina. I loved to climb that tree, and, in great expectation of the pecan pie to follow, I eagerly gathered pecans from it and cracked them and picked their meat. 

I had always thought that my grandmother's pecan pie was the best that I had ever eaten. While acknowledging the unreliability of 1950s' vintage memories and my misgivings about committing heresy, I have concluded that Pat's pecan pies are even better than my grandmother's were.