The Pie That Got Away: Bo the Monkey & Our Blueberry Lemon Icebox Pie Recipe
- Karen Hand Allen
- Oct 30, 2025
- 7 min read
It was the 60’s, people were on the move but wanting to relax and be comfortable, spending time with their loved ones. There was an emphasis on family life, which for us meant being centered around food and pets. They were as much part of the American dream as apple pie. We owned the original Alta Loma Café, which took on a life of its own, but when we were home, our aim was to cook and relax, but not in that order.
Speaking of pets, most people had a dog or a cat, and we’d had our share of those, but our household had the strange and the unexpected. Another time, I’ll tell you about that whole show but now meet our friend Bo. He was a monkey and our family pet, and with him there was not even the semblance of the ordinary, of the mundane. Then one day he got out of his cage…
My older brother decided he had to have a pet monkey, and he was granted one. What a mean sucker! He was a capuchin monkey, one that had a life expectancy of fifteen years or more, oh let me count the days. He looked like the monkey in television shows-the organ grinder ones. He was cute till you really got to know him. Bo would haul off and bite the dickens out of you; I thought he was mean as a snake. Once out of his cage, he ran willy-nilly through the house at breakneck speed, letting out this screech-cry at the same time.
Enough to wake the dead. He would really haul rear. It took all five of us kids to capture him sometimes, and he worked us like we were circus people. He had us gathering fruits, sugarcane, and leaves as fast as he could inhale them, then he shat like a pet coon at Christmas. Even though he was not our pet, we were all fascinated by him and somehow we served our time in monkey confinement.
One morning I awoke to a clatter and running sounds. Not-quite-with-it, I pulled the cover over my head and dozed. Oh no, not another dream about Bo the monkey. I had them all the time. I closed my eyes, deeper into dreamland…
A shrieking sound roared past my bedroom door. The hallway buzzed with life and something akin to panic filled my brother’s voice.
“He’s escaped. Bo Boy’s on the run!”
“Grab him quick, I’m making two Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cheesecake pies, keep him out of my kitchen,” Virgie yelled. “If he gets loose in this house, we’ll never find him.”
I heard her mumble something under her breath that sounded like "dirty monkey," but I couldn’t be sure. Peeking down the hallway I looked for any signs that he had made it to my side of the house; all was quiet. I scooted down to Donnie’s room, quickly shutting my bedroom door. No loose monkeys in there. Donnie was dead to the world, so I shook him, hard.
“How can you sleep? Bo is loose and is making a beeline for your room. He’s running amuck, and Virgie’s fit to be tied!”
Donnie skedaddled around his bed, jerking on shorts and a tee as he ran.
“Let’s capture him, can’t be that hard.”
Running all in, he hit the hallway and skidded past me as he slipped on monkey mess, righting himself just in the nick of time. He left a nasty smelling brown trail all along one side of the hallway. We rounded into the living room, finding a mad Virgie. Mama was due home any second, and all us kids and Virgie went on an all-out monkey hunt.
“If that monkey isn’t found, your mama will have a fit and we are all in trouble”. About that time Bo charged straight for Virgie, hopping on the counter and landing head-first into one of the pies. It got the better part of Bo, covering half of his head and all down his tail. Virgie let out a blood curdling scream as Bo ran, disappearing from sight.
Suddenly Bo appeared out of nowhere, peeking in, then out from my mother’s China cabinet/hutch duo. We were done in for. If anything got broken, we were dead meat. Aunt Ruby, Daddy’s sister, who we all thought of as a queen-was so talented and wonderful-had just painted a bunch of dishes that she made in her kiln. They were lined up perfectly and Bo threatened to undo all of that with his odious work. He popped his head out, disappearing just as Mama came through the front door. We turned back around, and the little fella was gone. Did Bo run outside? None of us could be entirely sure.
“He can be a sneaky one and I hate to think of the damage he could do in this house.” Mama said.
The shrieking had stopped, it was impossible to capture him with no clue where he had gone. We gave it our all but couldn’t find him. Mamma was upset, but Daddy was totally in disbelief.
“A tiny monkey could outsmart all of us, no way.” Well, way!
We looked for Bo for one whole day but to no avail. Finally, on day two, the shrieking started again, just as Daddy captured him in my parent’s closet. He had a nest of sorts, shredding up one of my mother’s best silk dresses. Not content with that, he got three of her hats and pooed in them. You can just imagine how horrid that was, right? A whole corner revealed that he clawed Daddy’s dress pants and put a cotton shirt through the ringer. He made himself right at home. Just as Daddy captured him, he let out a wail and bit him, causing blood to gush, flying across the room onto the carpeted floor where it made a ghastly bloody appearance. We couldn’t get him in his cage fast enough. My brother was grounded for a week and so was Bo.
You’d have to know how important the Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cheesecake Pie was to us, both as cooks and foodies. It was one that we’d often make when we went to our Boat Camp. We gobbled it in one sitting. There were five kids and my parents, we just couldn’t get enough. After all, we’d been burning calories all day.
Most days at the bait camp, after breakfast we were sent outside to play. Naturally, we all headed to swim right by the dock of our camp. There were races and dares. I remember one of my brothers dared me to swim under our cabin cruiser all the way to the other side. He kept doing it, taunting me, so I had to try. It was none too pretty either. I held my breath for all I was worth, but it was a no go. I kept imagining that I got stuck under the boat and couldn’t find my way out. Or that somehow my hair got caught in the outboard Evinrude motor. Get what I mean? Moving on.
We were rabid by the time my mother called us in for lunch, usually a sandwich. Wolfing that down, we’d start in begging for something sweet. She said this pie was simple, so us kids went to work. We were off to the races. She was an extremely wise woman, she’d packed all the ingredients: one unbaked pie shell, one 8 oz package of cream cheese, one 8 oz carton of sour cream, one large Cool Whip, one cup of granulated sugar, and one lemon. Mama always brought pre-made pie crusts with us. Easy-peasy.
We pricked the raw piecrusts all over with a fork. Pre-heating the oven, we baked the piecrust 400 degrees for twelve to fourteen minutes. It cooked while we made the filling. In a large bowl, we mixed the package of ceam cheese until smooth. To that, we folded in the sour cream, adding granulated sugar. Then we folded in the cool whip to the mixture and zested the lemon, adding the juice of the lemon as well as the zest. In a separate bowl, we took a carton of blueberries and washed them, then sprinkled with one quarter cup granulated sugar and the juice and zest of half a lemon. After the pie shell was cool, we added the cream cheese mixture into the pie crust and topped with the blueberry mixture.
That day Bo’s little trick cost us a pie, but the only highlight of his shenanigans was that although Bo ruined one whole pie, we had another one was in the refrigerator and was safe and sound. And ready to be eaten. Since we weren’t able to find him initially, we rewarded ourselves and had big gobs of that wonderful Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cheesecake Pie.
Every time I think of Bo, I think of the pie that got away. This is for you Bo!
Blueberry Lemon Icebox Cheesecake Pie
Recipe By: Karen Hand Allen (www.karenhandallen.com)
This light and fluffy mouthwatering pie feels like you died and gone to heaven.
Perfect for your next soiree, it will steal the show. The crust is delightfully crunchy and melts in your mouth. It makes one nine inch pie.
Servings: 6-8 pieces
Prep Time: 15 mins | Cooking Time: 12-14 mins | Rest Time: 30 mins | Total Time: about 1-2 hrs
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