Thelma 9 Chocolate Pie

Over the weekend, I finally got around to making a dessert. Haven't seemed to be doing a lot of dessert-making of late, perhaps because even though I've had more time at home, I've been putting lots more time into the yard. That's been keeping me out of the kitchen quite a bit.

I think I'm on safe ground when I report to you that this is my oldest recipe. I've always called it the Thelma 9 chocolate pie (more about that in a moment). Back in 1976, when I was still 10 years old, I was the lone child to accompany my mother up to Maryland to celebrate her eldest sister's 70th birthday (Gladys was oldest, Mother was youngest, with 21 years between them). It was an overdue reunion for all seven of the Modlin siblings, who had not been together in quite some time. Several of my aunts and uncles, I'd never even met till then.

My Uncle Carlton's wife Thelma brought these amazing chocolate pies and I guess it's the first time I remember getting my mother to get a recipe for us. We faithfully recorded it into her little spiral notecard recipe book, and when I graduated from college I transferred it to some Carolina Telephone notepads, and later when I finally settled down in Winston-Salem and my sister gave me a real recipe binder, I transferred it into it. From the very beginning, I've called it the Thelma 9 chocolate pie, I guess because the 10-year-old me either didn't see or understand the "-mark beside it...it was supposed to be "Thelma's 9-inch Chocolate Pie."

I like calling it the Thelma 9 though.