美国国家公共电台 NPR Even After 100 Years, People Are Still Reaching For The Moon(Pie)

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

OK. The turkey and dressing 1 may be dry or disappeared by now, but this season also sees a celebration of another distinctly American treat, the MoonPie. Maybe I should say moon-pye (ph). The snack food that began as a coal miner's treat is still being made in its original bakery, and all they need is a jingle 2 from BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music, to celebrate the MoonPie's 100th birthday. Melanie Peeples has this appreciation 3.

MELANIE PEEPLES, BYLINE 4: Once upon a time, the MoonPie was just a snack cake you bought at the country store - just a humble 5 sandwich of graham crackers 6 with marshmallow filling and a waxy 7 coating of chocolate. But today, 100 years after the first one rolled out of the bakery, it has slipped the surly bonds of the snack food industry and transcended 8 into a cultural icon 9 of the South.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RC COLA AND MOON PIE")

BIG BILL LISTER: (Singing) Give me an RC Cola and a MoonPie, playing "Maple 10 On The Hill."

PEEPLES: Big Bill Lister sang about it back in 1951, but he's far from the only one to memorialize it in art. Andy Warhol had his soup cans. But when folk artist Howard Finster turned his eyes to the MoonPie, he created art out of love, an homage 11 to the birthplace of the little round-faced pie.

(SOUNDBITE OF CONVEYOR BELT RUNNING)

PEEPLES: This is where it all happens - at the Chattanooga Bakery in Chattanooga, Tenn. Marketing 12 Director Tory Johnston stands next to the conveyor belt.

TORY JOHNSTON: Here we have what's called the Enrober. But this is sort of our - our Willy Wonka moment where we are - the entire row of Mini MoonPies are now falling underneath 13 - or proceeding 14 underneath this waterfall of chocolate.

PEEPLES: They can make more than a million MoonPies a day here. And like any great legend, the MoonPie mythos has been handed down in a great oral tradition.

SAM CAMPBELL IV: I tell the story like it was told to me.

PEEPLES: Sam Campbell IV is the president of the Chattanooga Bakery, which has been in his family for five generations and is still owned by the Campbells. Word has it an enterprising salesman at the bakery is responsible for it.

CAMPBELL IV: When he went up into Appalachia to try to sell some of the products from the bakery to the coal miners, they said, we don't want anything that your selling. We want something that's big and round and filled up with marshmallow, and it needs to be covered in chocolate. And then they framed the moon with their hands and said, and it needs to be as big as the moon.

PEEPLES: It was an astronomical 15 hit. And though it is most beloved and consumed by those living in the South, they are actually sold in every state of the union. You just have to look a little harder in some places than others. Across the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga, it's the main attraction at the MoonPie store.

CARRIE CROWE: So you can get a double-decker. You can get a single-decker. They have the mini ones, you know, the smaller ones. And then they have all the different flavors. I personally like the vanilla 16 or the chocolate.

PEEPLES: That's Carrie Crowe. She was born and raised in Chattanooga. She even put MoonPies in her wedding gift baskets to guests. But today she's brought friends.

KAREN HILLS: I'm Karen Hills, and I am visiting Carrie. I'm from Minneapolis.

PEEPLES: So of course they made the pilgrimage to the MoonPie store. Karen, from Minneapolis, has never even seen one for sale before. Crowe tries to prepare her.

CROWE: It tastes like a s'more but not hot and more mushy. So it's...

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: They're mushy. Mushy...

CROWE: The gushy delightfulness 17 of the South.

PEEPLES: Karen allows me to record her first bite. She goes traditional and tries chocolate.

HILLS: It's like a soft vanilla wafer. Oh, yeah - a little...

CROWE: A little s'more. OK.

HILLS: The white part is marshmallow-y (ph). Uh-huh.

PEEPLES: Some people might call that heavenly. Karen decides to buy several boxes of them to take back to Minnesota...

HILLS: I'm going to share most of them (laughter).

PEEPLES: ...Because Karen, having finally seen the light, must spread the good word.

HILLS: I'm having a group of women at my house next Monday, and they are going to have MoonPies. We are going to have that for some of our treat (laughter).

PEEPLES: Like Marco Polo bringing noodles to Italy, she will bring MoonPies to the Minnesotans - in her bridge club. Maybe they'll even sing. Happy birthday, MoonPie.

For NPR News, I'm Melanie Peeples in Chattanooga.