The Tales of Huckleberry Hound: Season 4

15. A Pizza the Pie

One morning, Huckleberry Hound was installing a new automatic dumbwaiter in his basement. Whenever he went down there, he had a special workshop for working on new inventions. You see, before he came to Hill Street Neighborhood, he wanted to be an engineer. But ever since his dream went down the drain (thanks to a certain hippo), he switched to singing and dancing. But he still enjoyed putting his engineering skills to work.

"This is the perfect way to get stuff down to the basement easier," he said to himself. "But now, I think I'm getting hungry. I'll go into town and get something to eat."

He rushed out the door, and soon, he was zipping down the road on his favorite red scooter. As he reached downtown, he soon ran into his friends.

"Howdy, fellers!" he called out, honking his horn. "How y'all doing on this lovely day?"

Huck was honking his scooter horn so loud, everyone had to cover their ears.

"Huck, could you keep it down with the horn?" Mr. Jinks asked.

"Whoops! Sorry, Jinks!" the hound chuckled.

"Anyway, we're doing just fine," Hokey Wolf replied. "But we're getting rather hungry."

"Indeed...we could do with some lunch...chow, even!" Snagglepuss added.

Just then, a tantalizing, savory scent filled the air, and filled everyone's noses. It was unlike anything they'd ever smelled before! It was warm...it was enticing, and it was absolutely delicious!

"Mmm!" Huck cried. "I wonder what that could be!"

"I wonder too!" Jinks cried. "It smells so tasty!"

Huck sniffed. "I smell cheese, and tomato, and garlic, and...something else...some kind of spice. It's incredible! We should go and see where it's comin' from!"

And off they went, with Huck riding his scooter alongside his friends. They soon found out where the smell was coming from: a pizza shop!

"Pizza?" Huck wondered. "I never heard of this before."

"Nor have I!" Snagglepuss added.

"Oh, I think I've heard about this somewhere before!" Hokey cried. "Back in New York, they have these little shops all over the place! And this pizza is a kind of pie!"

"Pie?" Jinks questioned. "That doesn't smell like any pie I've ever smelled before!"

"We should go inside and see what it's like!" Huck suggested.

And that's just what they did! Now you have to understand that around the early 60's, pizza was still a relatively new food to American culture. It first appeared on the east coast among Italian families, who opened their very own shops. But it wasn't until the early 60's that pizza began to go mainstream. And furthermore, Huck and his friends were not only about to be introduced to a new popular food, but a popular new way of obtaining food!

The friends entered the pizza shop and took a look around. It was a warmly lit little place with sconces on the walls and a lot of tables and chairs placed around. And in the very back, there was a huge kitchen with a huge oven where people were hard at work. Huck could see them through a little window in the back wall. He and the others watched as one of the cooks tossed a large disc of dough into the air, and flattened it into a large circular shape. Then he poured bright red tomato sauce over it, followed by shredded mozzarella cheese, and some kind of meat that looked like sausage, but it smelled quite spicy and tangy!

"Oooh!" the gang chorused, watching in awe.

"That looks yummy!!" Huck cried out. "I wanna try it!"

When the pizza was ready, they asked the cook if they could each have a slice to try. Of course, he was happy to let them taste the pizza. The gang paid 6 cents each, then they all took a slice and tasted it. Wow! It was unlike anything they'd ever eaten before!