Pumpkin Pie and Citizenship

Our family loves pumpkin anything. So much so my husband and children request pumpkin pie instead of birthday cake. We always thought you couldn’t possibly go wrong with a pumpkin dessert. Then my grandma changed our minds when she described her mother’s first experience with that “American” specialty, pumpkin pie…

My grandma’s parents were Slovenian. And totally unfamiliar with pumpkins. So when my great grandma Rozalia’s brother started telling about something he heard in the coal mine, how pumpkin pie was the greatest dessert ever, Rozalia was intrigued. To these immigrants, being “American” was the most important thing in life. They were in America, they valued their citizenship, and they embraced their new homeland. So of course Rozalia felt compelled to cook the new dessert her brothers were encouraging her to try.

They brought her a pumpkin, which she proceeded to peel, and slice up, layering those beautiful orange slices in her perfect lard piecrust as she would with apple, sprinkling on a bit of sugar and spices, and cooked it – when they all bit into her infamous “pumpkin pie”, they unanimously declared Americans had no sense when it came to good food, and fed the rest to the hog.

Now when I taught Government, on the first day of school I’d tell them their Final Exam was to be the US Citizenship Test – if these were questions any immigrant wanting to become a citizen must prove to know, logically any graduating American senior born and bred in this country should be able to answer the same questions! Right? Oh my of course no. Shame on me for thinking because the test was online and you could practice as much as you want if you were either incompetent or hadn’t paid attention in any history class in your life, it should have been their easiest final exam. Who gives the questions prior to the test!

Lee and I are nerds, and happen to have an ongoing love affair with History, so something like quizzing each other on the Citizenship Test questions is fun in our world. But even if the thought doesn’t intrigue you, if you know a high school student, see if they can pass it – some of the questions surprised me, many I’m sure you could guess would be on there, but I vehemently believe if my great grandparents took such pride in passing that test, to become real Americans, the rest of us lucky enough to have been born here should value what we have a little more than we do – and if we aren’t as well versed as we should be, take the time to do something about it!