YSK: there was a time when pumpkin pie was comparitively niche as fall holiday foods go. People would make sweet potatoe pie. However, it was essentially impossible to source sweet potatoes in the USA that were not made via slave labor, and so abolitionists pushed for an alternative: pumpkin pie. It’s interesting what boycotts and politics are baked into culture (and ovens), and how we forget about their origins.
[off topic]
Someone posted that so many early cartoons [Mickey Mouse in particular] wore white gloves because they were modeled on minstrel show characters. You can’t look at American history for more than a minute before something like this pops up.
Wait till you hear where ice cream truck music comes from.
Agatha Christie has entered the chat