Can She Bake a Cherry Pie Billy Boy?

Can she bake a cherry pie Billy Boy, Billy Boy.  Remember that song?  I loved singing that old song in middle school chorus, I'm not sure why since I was singing it in the late 1970's when Helen Reddy was telling me I was "woman, hear me roar!"  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that our choral director was a man in his late 40's who longed for the days when women still baked pies for Charming Billy?!  Somehow I managed to embrace both tunes and became a successful pie baker, while also being a productive member of the workforce!

Ok, so enough about Billy, or having numbers too big to ignore, let's talk about my pie safe, which is far less controversial and far more lovely!

We bought this piece right after our daughter was born.  It was one of those purchases where you really weren't sure how you would pay for it, but you bought it anyway!  I did at least get the antiques store where I bought it to agree to let me pay for it in installments, but even with that I had to do some financial finagling to make it all work.  My brand of trickery was to convince Mr. Tide that we just had to have this wonderful pie safe, and to also then make him believe that tuna noodle casserole was the best, most healthy, most delicious meal of all time!

I gladly clipped coupons for the next few months and even took on a job making dolls and angels out of twist ribbon to sell to help cover the cost since I was home with our daughter at the time.  Finally, about 6 months later the little pie safe was "safe" at home with us and she was worth every hot glue burned finger from making those dam* dolls!

This humble little pine pie safe has held a place of honor in every home that Mr. Tide and I have shared and she's held  everything from candles, to table linens, to spare dishes, but never what she was intended to hold... Pies!  She has moved around a bit in our current house, but right now she is sits tucked in a special corner just off the kitchen.

I often wonder what delicious pies once occupied her and the stories behind who baked them.  It must have been fun to live in a time when pie safes held pies and not Christmas, Easter, and every other holiday's knickknacks!  A simpler time, spent baking and cooling Sunday pies in every flavor imaginable in handmade pieces of furniture inside a big farm kitchen.

She carries her age well, but bears the dings and scars of years of dutiful service.  I don't think the tins on her are original, but I love the heart design and the big wooden knobs.  I also love that the big top drawer doesn't glide out easily and kind of cocks to one side when it's open.  And how there is a little latch on the inside to hold one door closed while the other is open.

Just in case you thought I was neat about stashing away my holiday items, here is proof that I am not!  But my secret is safe with her since I can close her pretty pierced tin doors and visitors are none the wiser!

If it's possible to love an inanimate object, then truly I have a love affair with my pie safe.  I think that is she could talk she would regale  me with stories of her lifelong adventures.  Maybe once upon a time she traveled in a wagon, or held jars of freshly made blueberry jam.  Whatever her past may have been, I know that her future lies with us, continuing to do what she does best, being useful.

For more posts about furniture, head over to Miss Mustard Seed's for Furniture Feature Friday!

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For more wonderful vintage items you'll want to visit The Coloradolady for Vintage Thingie Thursday!