A18
COMMUNITY
East Oregonian
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Voices: An unintentional tradition
By SARAH
ZOLLNER CASE
Special to the
East Oregonian
One year when I was in
third or fourth grade, my
family’s Christmas plans
were interrupted by forces
of nature. As the holiday
approached, Mom baked in
preparation for our trip three
hours south to my grandpar-
ents’ house. She made several
fruit pies to contribute to the
much anticipated Christ-
mas dinner we would enjoy
with my grandparents, aunts,
uncles and cousins.
Our intention was to wake
up Christmas morning in our
own beds, open gifts around
our tree, eat breakfast and
then pile into the car and head
to Roseburg for a few days’
visit. What happened instead
was disappointing to say the
least. A winter storm rolled
in, and the east wind swept
through our suburban town
and left the roads encased in
thick ice. To make matters
worse, our neighborhood
was perched high on a hill,
and our neighborhood street
that led to the main road was
treacherous and impassable.
Driving on it in a car full of
kids was out of the question.
We were crestfallen. Of
course we looked forward
to opening the gifts under
the tree, but our family’s
approach to Christmas gifts
was relatively low key. We
knew there weren’t any
Barbie Dream Houses or
Nintendo gaming systems to
be found; nothing amazing
enough to distract us from
being stuck inside at home
when we wanted to be some-
where else.
When we woke up Christ-
mas morning, my parents
had hatched a cheer-up plan.
After opening gifts, they
announced that we were
having pie and ice cream for
breakfast. Mom laid out the
spread of pies and we cut into
all of them. We had free rein
to build the breakfast plate
of our dreams: choose your
favorite kind or try some
of each. Warm it up in the
microwave if you want. Plop
a scoop of ice cream on top.
It was decadent and unex-
pected, and it raised the spir-
its in the room 110%.
Not surprisingly, we three
kids immediately decided
that henceforth, Breakfast
Pie was the new Christ-
mas Normal, and should be
planned accordingly.
For more than three
decades, as my brothers and
ANYONE CAN
WRITE
Nearly 40 years in the
business have taught
me that readers are
bombarded and over-
whelmed with facts.
What we long for, though,
is meaning and a connec-
tion at a deeper and more
universal level.
And that’s why the
East Oregonian will
be running, from time
to time, stories from
students who are in my
writing class, which I’ve
been teaching for the
past 10 years in Portland.
I take great satisfac-
tion in helping so-called
nonwriters fi nd and
write stories from their
lives and experiences.
They walk into my room
believing they don’t
have what it takes to be
a writer. I remind them if
they follow their hearts,
they will discover they are
storytellers.
As we all are at our
core.
Some of these stories
have nothing to do with
Pendleton or Umatilla
County. They do,
however, have everything
to do with life.
If you are interested in
contacting me to tell me
your story, I’d like to hear
from you.
Tom Hallman Jr.,
tbhbook@aol.com
Tom Hallman Jr. is a
Pulitzer Prize-winning
feature writer for the
Oregonian newspaper.
He’s also a writing coach
and has an affi nity for
Umatilla County.
I grew up, moved out, and
established our adult lives,
we kept on. Every Christ-
mas, we would wake up in
our own homes with our
partners and kids, open gifts
around our respective trees,
and then drive across town
to my parents’ house, where
we would open more gifts
and tuck into a pie buffet.
Over the years, as spouses
and partners and joined our
crew, or when other extended
family members joined us for
the holiday, they were always
surprised and delighted by
the magic of Breakfast Pie.
The truth is that Break-
fast Pie was the most
constant part of our Christ-
mas celebration for many
years. The tradition came
with us when my parents
moved from that house on
the hill in the suburbs to a
neighborhood in the city.
Long after an ugly family
rift severed our relation-
ship to my mom’s sister
and her kids — the cousins
we were so excited to see
the year of the ice storm —
Breakfast Pie was our holi-
day companion. The church
we grew up in folded, and
we found new places to
worship on Christmas Eve,
but Breakfast Pie kept the
faith. Our grandparents
passed and there was no
longer a house in Roseburg
to visit, but Breakfast Pie
was still with us.
I ate Breakfast Pie in a
bathrobe at my parents’ house
the year I was miscarrying
on Christmas morning, and
again years later, we gathered
for pie the fi rst Christmas after
my young son died. There
was something comforting
and connecting in this shared
rhythm of our holiday; joy in
the midst of grief and disap-
pointment, something solid
and familiar when other parts
of life were unpredictable and
unwelcome.
In the beginning, mom
made the pies, and there were
always at least three or four to
choose from. Apple, peach,
blueberry, and pumpkin
made regular appearances.
Later, my brother’s wife, who
had lost her mother to cancer
when she was 19, started
bringing a homemade lemon
meringue pie every year; it
was her mother’s famous
recipe. I added a Tollhouse
pie, because if you’re going
to eat dessert in the morn-
ing, why stop short of choco-
late? Of course there was ice
cream and whipped cream
too. We’re not animals.
And that’s how a nutri-
tionally questionable meal
that started in the 1980s as a
consolation prize for disap-
pointed grade schoolers
became the stuff of family
legend — a treasured tradi-
tion and a hallmark of the
holiday.
For the past two years,
various factors including the
coronavirus pandemic have
colluded to bring an end to
the era of Breakfast Pie. Will
we ever gather as an extended
family and eat ourselves into
a carb coma before 11 AM
again? Hard to say. But for 35
years, this enduring family
tradition did what we needed
it to. Breakfast Pie got us
through that fi rst disappoint-
ing Christmas, and showed
us that even something friv-
olous can become a mean-
ingful touch point for family
connection.
Santa Bucks
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have a
great holiday!
Purchase Santa Bucks to
provide a holiday dinner to
a local family in need.
11/30/21 - 12/7/21
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PG 1,Common
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