Posted on Fri, Oct. 11, 2002 story:PUB_DESC

Chattanooga cookie still satisfies Southern taste buds By ALLISON ASKINS Staff Writer

Columbian's family has place in history

Cathy Bolton of the Palmetto Candy and Tobacco Co. in Columbia's Vista has eaten MoonPies all her life.

"My dad owned a little country store, and we used to eat them all the time," Bolton said. "It's got old-fashioned flavor from bygone days."

The bakery that makes the beloved chocolate-marshmallow confection is celebrating its centennial today by asking folks to send in their MoonPie memories. Since 1917, Chattanooga Bakery has been the sole maker of the Southern culinary classic.

Like their regional kin, Midlands residents love their MoonPies.

"Those are big-selling items out here, MoonPies and RC Colas," said Bill Wells of Bill's Music Shop & Pickin' Parlor in West Columbia. "Every time we have a concert, we open the show with, 'Welcome to Bill's Pickin' Parlor, home of MoonPies, RC Cola and good old Blenheim Ginger Ale.' That's been our spiel ever since I've been in business."

And then there's Skip Mitchell of Columbia, who has his own MoonPie connection.

His grandfather, the late Earl Wayne Mitchell of Tennessee, is credited with coming up with the idea of the MoonPie, which, by the way, had record sales of $20 million last year.

The elder Mitchell, an employee of a mill company that sold cakes and cookies for Chattanooga Bakery, suggested the idea to the bakery after talking with coal miners in his territory. They said they wanted a big, sweet cookie they could take with them into the mines. The rest is, as they say, history.

The Mitchell story will be featured in an S.C. ETV special at 10 p.m. Dec. 5 as part of ETV's Southern Lens series. Titled "How Chattanooga Mooned America," the story includes conversation with Mitchell's father, the late Earl Wayne Jr., who died in July.

Skip Mitchell, who confesses he's not a MoonPie fan, passes off the moment of fame with a shrug.

"You didn't go around telling people that. I never saw what the big deal was, but apparently a lot of people did."

Indeed they did, and still do.

"MoonPies saved my life many a day," said Fred Berry, a bluegrass mandolin picker from Columbia. "At (Boy Scout) Camp Barstow, they'd give you a combination special, MoonPie and an RC Cola. I still have a craving for those things, a single-layer, chocolate MoonPie."

Larry Brasfield, manager of Mr. Bunky's Market in Eastover, said the filling cookies are as popular as ever.

"If we run out, someone asks, 'Man, you got any more MoonPies?'" Brasfield said.

Shirley Mathias of Four Oaks Farm near Lexington is so fond of the MoonPie that she'll occasionally take one home just to keep in her kitchen to look at.

It evokes fond memories of a happy childhood, she said.

Whenever filling up the family car with gas, Mathias' father would buy her a MoonPie and an RC Cola.

She's traveled a bit since those days but never found the MoonPie outside of her beloved South.

"I lived in Arizona a while, and I didn't ever see a MoonPie out there," she said, chuckling. "They're too sophisticated out there."

Mike Miller and The Associated Press contributed to this story. Reach Askins at (803) 771-8614 or aaskins@thestate.com.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2002