Family Reunion and Parking Lot Pie.

This weekend we are having our annual Hebert Family Reunion. Okay, for all you non cajun people reading this, my last name is pronounced A-Bear. We had our first reunion about 15 years ago. Its really great to see all the aunts and uncles and cousins every year. Last year was the first one without my Grandmother. She passed away in March of 05. My uncle passed away this June, so its really important to keep the tradition going. My dad will be seventy this year and he is the baby. We are a small family just my dad and his brother and sister and all the cousins, mostly boys, and their children. My grandfather is still alive and healthy at 93, but he is beginning to show signs of Alzheimers. I have the pleasure of providing a homemade dessert for the entire crew. Everyone brings something. My tradition has become something my dad calls Parking Lot Pie. I know, I know, you are all wondering "What the Heck is Parking Lot Pie???", well let me tell you the story about parking lot pie. I make a fantastic Coconut Cream Pie, if I do say so myself. Anyway, for one reunion about 7 or 8 years ago, I decided to make this creamy creation. I prepared the crusts the day before, got up early on the Sunday morning and made not 1 but 2 pies. Two perfectly set up custard pies with two perfectly peaked meringue toppings that had been browned to perfection. (My my how time and memories can make all things perfect, LOL). Okay, so I place my two perfectly made pies in pizza pans to transport them the 30 miles to Kaplan. It should have been an easy feat for any man. Your wife just slaved over the stove to create desserts that will proclaim to the rest of the family that she can bake. The first rule is to take care while driving. Okay, I place one pie on its pizza pan at my feet, and decided to carry the other one on my lap. My children and husband, as usual, are running behind schedule, so when we finally get everyone loaded up and the pies safely placed on MY SIDE OF THE VEHICLE and my dear Russell, who is, of course, aggravated because THE BOYS made us run late, backs out of our drive and jerks the wheel to take off down the road. What happens next was not pretty for anyone in that vehicle. My pie on the floorboard slides into my leg. Ruined, do you hear, R. U. I. N. E. D!!! Now I'm the one who is pissed, so pissed I can't even talk. I had to get out of the vehicle and scrap meringue off my damn leg. Well at least the pie in my hand survived and honestly the one at my feet was edible, just not very pretty. My husband is still mad, but now is trying not to laugh also. I am sure if you would ask my children that was the longest 30 minute trip they ever took. But this isn't over, do you think my dear husband learned anything from this disaster, NO, he continued to drive like a bat out of hell, jerking the wheel the whole way there. He also continued to slosh pie onto my legs as well as managed to mess up the one on my lap. I'm soo mad I'm still not taking to him. He pulls into the only grocery store in the town of Kaplan, Louisiana, to purchase some store bought brownies to supplement what was slosh all over my legs with his erratic driving. I'm boiling by this time. As he calmly strolls into the store, I very very calmly roll my window down and pitch that f'ing pie right out of the window. There was a lady walking by as that pie went sailing out of the window whose jaw just dropped. She stopped dead in her tracks to watch this pie land in the parking lot. I immediately felt much better. We drove the last 5 minutes to the farm in dead silence. My children are very perceptive and knew better than to comment. I walked into the kitchen with one pie whose custard was spilling over the edges of the pan and whose meringue had spots remove from being stuck to my arm. Well within about 3 minutes of us arriving at the reunion, my husband had informed everyone, well out of my range of hearing, about our pie adventure. So my dad now requests Parking Lot Pie every year and I gladly make them every year and have even learned to laugh with the rest of the family as they all oooh and aahhh over my perfect pies.