The Pie Guy

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

My daughter has unlocked the key to basically getting anything she wants — pie.

You see, my Father (her Pop-Pop) loves pie of all kinds. Unfortunately for him, he does not have many active pie bakers in his life. My Mom, my wife, my sister and even I can make a pretty good pie, but we don’t really have a lot of time or incentive to do so unless it’s the holidays.

However, my daughter has got him pegged. If she needs something, all she has to do is bake him a pie. She first came across this revelation a couple of years ago. She was complaining that she needed a new pair of metal cleats for softball. As they are pretty pricey, I told her she would be just fine with her rubber cleats. That’s when my Dad got an idea.

“I’ll buy you some new cleats if you’ll make me a chocoltate

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pie. You could almost see the dollar signs in her eyes.

And sure enough, two days later, my Dad had a chocolate pie and my daughter’s orange Nike box arrived via Amazon the next day.

And so, ever since then, the transfer of goods has continued unabated. New seat covers for the car? Here’s a lemon icebox pie, Pop-Pop.

Fishing license needs renewed? How about a cherry pie?

Yesterday, she was home for Spring Break, so we went for a visit. There was talk about money for a cool National Guard uniform she wanted and something about a coconut cream pie…

The best thing is it works out great for me. I don’t have to spend money on this stuff and my Dad is usually nice enough to share his pie.

So, it’s win-win!