Sweet Potato Paah

Observed a month or so ago at Rockland's Barbecue on Wisconsin Avenue in Glover Park:

A man walked up to the counter and began asking questions regarding the menu.  He appeared to be a bit of  a hick.  I was eating my food, perched on a stool in front of the main window that fronts the street.  What follows almost had me laughing harder than I have in a long time (but I managed to hide my mirth).

The man's final question regarding the menu had to do with the tempting array of sweets that Rockland's has available on the counter right next to the area where one pays.  We're talking:  various types of pie--pecan; pumpkin; sweet potato--and homemade cookies and brownies.  I couldn't see him, but I couldn't help hearing him asking questions about the pie.  "What kind of"--in a deep Southern accent, here--"paah" is this?  When he asked which was the best pie, the fellow at the cash register told him (as he subsequently told me on another occasion) that it was the sweet potato; and that it was homemade.

This is when the story gets good:  the man asked who made the pie.  The cashier informed him:  "Ernesto."  (Most of the staff at Rockland's are Latinos.)

This was the man's response:  "So the paah comes from Augusta?"

I was all but keeling over at this point.  The cashier repeated, "Ernesto."  Once again, this was lost on the hick.  He finished ordering his food--but not, the "paah."

I gleefully (and, happily, as I myself spent four of the best years of my life there) concluded that he must be from Georgia.  At the very least, he must play golf.

Perhaps he was a Masters Tournament winner...an I jus didn recohnize im...