Gram's Montgomery Pie & RR Tramps

This was Gram's favorite pie, along with her apple pie.

I have this easy recipe written in her hand dated Feb. 6th, 1980.

Montgomery Pies
for 2 pies

First part:
1 egg
1/2 cup syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 pint hot water
1 TBS. flour
lemon extract

Second part:
1 Lemon cake mix
mix according to directions on box

Pour liquid mixture into 2 unbaked pie shells
Then add cake batter

Bake 350 degree oven till done.

She has another version I will post later when I find it that
is not using a boxed cake mix.

Gram's home on Cabbage Creek has a railroad track running in her back yard. When I was small we used to wait for the small train to come by because there was a man who was always in the caboose who threw us candy! One time we flagged the train to slow down and Pap walked up to the man and gave him a gift from all of us kids. Pap worked for the railroad and found out his name. He was a kind man. Once a week we watched for him then one day he retired. He would wave to us with his red hanky, a smile on his face always and the most gentle eyes. We really missed him. Now that train had at times Tramps as they were called backed then, homeless men who rode on it. Gram's home was known to be kind to these men. The Tramps told her it was marked somehow. The Tramps who rode by saw the mark, would hop off the train and they knew they would be welcomed to a warm meal with hot coffee, a chair to set in and warm soap and water to wash up with. These men all had a trade or knack to fix things. There were men who repaired shoes, fixed umbrella's, repaired bicycles, all kinds of skills. One played a harmonica, another a banjo, another a mandolin and yet another played spoons. They only ever told her their first names and they called her Miss Anna. She said these Tramps of the Railroad all were gentlemen, never a harsh word. Some would set and talk a spell yet others would hardly speak a word. They mostly came during the warm months with only one or two in the winter. Gram was a nurse and she also would sometimes supply iodine, Cloverine sauves and clean linen bandages. She would sometimes give them thread and a needle to repair their clothes or she would sew for them. They would leave as quietly as they came, always they told her "God
Bless you, Miss Anna."