Tom Angleberger

The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?

Recent columns

• For 'chemtrail' theories, the sky is the limit
• Myriad of factors prompted closure of Lakeside Amusement Park
• Unsold items go from shelves to food banks
• AT bridge in Botetourt was built for more than hikers
• From Mountain Lake to the Mississippi and beyond
• Media likely ignored monument on artistic grounds

Sometimes, this Ask The Readers column works like magic.

One person has a question. One person has an answer.

(Or sometimes 60 people have an answer.) And I'm the guy that puts the two together.

For instance, a reader wanted Northern Spy apples. "I purchased Northern Spy apples just yesterday at Wythe Produce Market on Fourth Street in Wytheville," Vaughn Cassell writes.

Somebody else wanted to know how to get squash residue off a knife. "Salt or white vinegar or both," Gail Slaydon writes.

What about the lady who needs her vintage oven repaired? "I could probably fix her up," writes Robert Perdue of Robert's Repair Service.

But sometimes, my readers seem to ask for too much.

For instance, a reader recently asked for the recipe for the pecan pie from Archie's Lobster House.

But, lo and behold, someone did have it.

Mae Walrond worked at the Lobster House in the '50s and '60s.

"It was a great place to work," says Walrond, who now lives in Florida. "We had plenty of customers most all of the time."

Archie's sold lobsters, of course, as well as shrimp and soft-shell crabs. And for dessert: pecan pie for about 15 cents a slice, Walrond recalled.

The pie was so good that Walrond would buy whole pies to take home to her kids.

"I can distinctly remember how very much my siblings and I would look forward to the times she brought home an Archie's Pecan Pie," writes her son, David Walrond.

"Actually I think we enjoyed it more than anything else she might bring home including lobster."

But Mae Walrond did something even better. At some point she brought home the recipe, given to her by a cook. Her daughter, Sandy Crabtree, still had a copy.

Warning: You may need to visit a dentist after reading this recipe, which is for two pies:

Mix together 2 cups of sugar and 1¹₂ rounded tablespoons of flour.

Add half a pound (2 cups) of chopped pecans.

Add 9 eggs and ¹₂ teaspoon of vanilla. Stir and mix thoroughly, but do not beat.

Now comes the sweet stuff: 1 cup of white Karo syrup and 1 cup of maple syrup. Add a quarter pound of butter. (You may want to melt the butter.) Mix well and pour into pie shell. Top with whole pecans. Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees.

Wow! A cup of Karo syrup and a cup of maple syrup. No wonder the kids liked it.

Mae Walrond thinks it was the maple syrup that gave Archie's pies their "distinctive flavor." If I ever got up the nerve to try one, I'm sure I'd agree.

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I had similarly good luck with the question about H&C Coffee.

A reader told me that H&C used to give away coffee pots, and he wanted to know what they looked like.

Susan Wood Jennings sent not only a description but also a photo.

"They are decorated with coffee plants and the H&C initials," Woods Jennings writes. "My grandfather founded Woods Brothers Coffee Co., the makers of H&C, and my father was president at one time so I have several H&C items."

And for some reason, Tom Lunsford, brother of Roanoke Times graphic artist Robert Lunsford, was able to crack the mysterious code found on the side of an old hammer.

The code read: "Roanoke Star 224 14 in Oct. A E Hammer."

Tom Lunsford breaks it down like this. "Roanoke Star" means it was a replacement handle sold by Roanoke Hardware, Nelson Hardware or Nelson Roanoke. The rest tells you which hammer the handle fits. The "14 in" means 14 inches, which was probably really 13 ³₄ inches. "Oct. A. E." means that it fits a hammer head with an eight-sided "adze eye," which is the hole in the hammer head.

The "224," however, remains a mystery.

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Speaking of mysteries, I'm still trying to track down a tube of Vegemite. I'll keep looking, but if you know for certain where Vegemite is locally available, please give me a shout. And if you know anything about Roanoke's first Krispy Kreme or the origin of the name "Shingle Block," I'd like to hear that, too.

And, I always want to hear your questions about anything local, global, sweet or salty that's on your mind.

Got a question? Got an answer? Call Tom Angleberger at 777-6476 or send an e-mail to tomangleberger@yahoo.com. Don't forget to provide your full name, its proper spelling and your hometown.

Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.