Quintessentially American: Missouri Meerschaum Co.

(Tobacco Business) Mom. Baseball. Apple pie. These three things have traditionally been viewed as the quintessential essence of the United States. By 1860, the phrase “as American as apple pie” was already in use. By World War II, when asked why they were fighting in the war, American GIs often responded, “for mom and apple pie,” and the phrase became “as American as mom and apple pie.” Baseball and hotdogs—and Chevrolet, for that matter—got thrown into the mix in 1974 when an advertising campaign declared Chevys “as American as baseball, hotdogs and apple pie.” One wonders what Chevy had against mothers. Of course, like so much iconography and lore, these sayings aren’t exactly steeped in fact. Continued


For More on its earliest origins see: Who Invented the Corn Cob Pipe?