Home · 10:56pm Dec 9th, 2013
The little oneshot I mentioned earlier has been submitted, so it should be showing up in your feed soon. If you haven't read it yet and have a few minutes, pop on over and give it a spin, would you? It's only three pages, and none of this post will make any sense without it.
In many ways, writing it was like writing Old Friends; similar style, similar pacing, similar melancholy. In one important way, writing Home was much different, because unlike Old Friends, Home is almost entirely autobiographical.
I took a few liberties here and there, but by and large it's almost entirely based on one very thin sliver of my relationship with my father – every Thanksgiving and Christmas, he would very carefully and methodically bake a pecan pie. Unlike Applejack, this is the only kind of pie I will eat. (That's mostly because I'm a very picky eater, mind.) For as long as I can remember, the holidays mean pecan pie, and in point of fact the holidays aren't the holidays without it. Like Applejack, I made a mistake, and spent some time away from my family, and since my sojurn lasted quite a bit longer than hers, I missed out on a fair few holidays.
The year I reconnected with my family, the year before my father died, he baked me one for my birthday and gave me the recipe, and I got to take it home and have it all to myself. And then suddenly I was the one baking pies at the holidays. Unlike Applejack, mine never come out as well as my parent's; it's a rare attempt that doesn't end in a cracked crust, but it usually tastes like I remember. Unlike Applejack, my only surviving family that likes pecan pie is my mother, so every year I bake us my father's pie.
It feels silly sometimes to have this be one of the best connections to my father I have – and I spent the entire time I was writing the story thinking how absurd it was to turn this deeply personal part of my life into a ponyfic – but it was also nice to write about, so I don't know.
He died before ponies aired; Mom and I wonder occasionally what he'd make of my unusual hobby. Cheerful befuddlement, perhaps. Oh well.
Happy holidays, everyone.
>RBDash makes a blog called "Home"
>The word home is sung in the song I'm listening to at the exact time i got the notif
freaky shit yo
also looking forward to readin that one-shot macdaddy wassup
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I'm so very sorry about your father. He sounds wonderful. And the pecan pie--though I've never had any, being a devious foreign person--sounds delicious.
And the story is good. And properly sad, too. There's no gratuitous tragedy about it. Just honest feeling, no less honest for being loosely attached to a pie.
Happy holidays, RBDash.
I don't think it's silly at all. Food, love, and family go together for a lot of people, and I'm glad you all managed to reconnect before he died. If nothing else, I'm sure he'd be proud of you and overjoyed to know that you and your mother have a tradition that makes you feel that connection you three shared every year.
That said, apple pie is just objectively better. Therefore your opinion offends me on a deeply personal level and you should feel bad.
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I'm tempted to send you the recipe, then; it's fairly straightforward. Do they have eggs and sugar in your far-away land?
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I'm glad we were able to reconnect too. And I've honestly never thought about him being happy that Mom and I have this little thing on the holidays. Thanks.
My girlfriend would agree with you, re:pie... you monsters.
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I'd appreciate the recipe, and, yes, we have eggs and sugar (and butter, and flour, and baking powder, &c) in my distant and exotic land. What we don't have is pecans. That sort of scotches the 'pecan pie' plan, doesn't it?
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...Shit.
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It's an American nut[1]. It neither grows nor is traditionally eaten in Europe. I can find some, I think, in those 'assortment of nuts' packages--I've certainly eaten a few, but only at a price that works out at something like upwards of $100 a pound. That would be one pricey pie.
[1] ...must...not...mention....American...politicians...resist...resist...
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Maybe you could make do with a can of these:
junkfoodguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/pecanpring-03.png
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> I spent the entire time I was writing the story thinking how absurd it was to turn this deeply personal part of my life into a ponyfic
If it were me, I would be flattered to inspire such a deeply felt legacy, no matter its form. I hope he would agree.
Thank you for sharing. It was a lovely little read.
I happen to live in the U.S, and pecans are one of my top favorite nuts. So I love pecan pie, too. My late mom (who passed away in November of 2012), like AJ's mother (and later AJ herself), made one killer pecan pie, which we all enjoyed enormously every Thanksgiving and Christmas, but unfortunately, her recipe books are currently sitting sadly in storage, and I have no access to them atm. (Given that said storage is about a 4 hour drive south from where I currently live.)
I don't suppose that you could e-mail me the recipe, too? I would love to have it to go with my dear mom's.
That was interesting.
Thank you for feeling so comfortable as to share with us this bit of yourself.
Family is never silly. The things you do with them, no matter how small, are everything. Cherish every moment.
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=)