Navajo Tacos and Bubble Gum Ice Cream

When I was a little girl living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, our family drove to Price, Utah every summer to visit the grandparents.  Fortunately, my dad's mom lived just 15 minutes away from my mom's parents.

I don't know exactly which year, but the day after we arrived, Nona drove down to Price to pick up my sister and I and take us out to lunch.

"Where do you want to go to lunch?"  Nona asked.

Kristi and I looked at each other and shrugged.  We had no idea what Price had to offer in the way of restaurants.

"We could go to the Carriage House," she suggested.

Again Kristi and I looked at each other and shrugged.  We had no idea what a carriage house was.  Turns out it was a hotel that had a restaurant attached.  A pretty cool looking hotel actually.

This restaurant had on its menu something that Kristi and I had never eaten before.  Navajo tacos.

"Wait, you are living in New Mexico and you had never eaten Navajo tacos?"  

"We are from Southern New Mexico, the Navajos live in Northern New Mexico."

"Oh, got it.  Continue with the story."

For those who don't know what a Navajo taco is, it's fried bread (like a scone) with taco toppings piled on top.  We were very familiar with tacos and ordered it.  I loved it!

After lunch, Nona went to the cash register to pay for our meal.  There at the register was an ice cream bar, where you could get hand-scooped ice cream.  Nona offered to buy us each an ice cream cone.  As I looked through the frosty glass to see what flavors they had, I saw something I had never seen before.  

BLUE ICE CREAM!

"What flavor is that?"

"That's bubble gum ice cream."

First Navajo tacos and now bubble gum-flavored ice cream?  Price, Utah has many wonderful new and exciting foods to behold!

Of course I had to try this crazy new ice cream.  And I loved it!

How I think I looked eating the ice cream.

How I probably actually looked eating the ice cream.

The following year, Nona again came the day after we arrived and asked us where we wanted to go to lunch.  We now know of one restaurant in town, The Carriage House.  So we said, "We'd like to go to the Carriage House."

When it was time to order our lunch, we knew of one item on the menu.  Navajo tacos.  So we got Navajo tacos.

When Nona offered us ice cream, I got the one flavor that you could only get in Price, Utah.  Bubble Gum.

Pretty soon, going to the Carriage House for Navajo tacos and ice cream became a tradition that would last for many years.

Even now I still like to order bubble gum ice cream. It always reminds me of Nona.

This story features:

Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan (1916-1998)

My grandmother (Nona)

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan

Nona's Magical Supply of Thread

Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan (1916-1998)

My grandmother

me --> Bruce Albert Buchanan --> Gertrude Maxine Wahl Buchanan

When I was 15 I spent the summer with my Nona.  Nona is Italian for grandmother.  Sometimes we would walk down the street and visit her cousin's wife, Edith Litizzette.

Edith had just bought a brand new sewing machine.  It could embroider and do all sorts of fancy stitches.  I remember looking at her machine and thinking I was seeing something out of the Jetsons.

It was a brand that I couldn't even pronounce.

The best way I can describe how to pronounce it is,  think of how you say "cupful."  Remove the "cu" and add an "aff" sound.  Well anyway, it sounded fancy and from the future.

A couple of years later when I was visiting Nona, she told me that she had bought herself a Pfaff sewing machine.  She only had it a few years when she fell and broke her shoulder.  She could no longer sew with it, so she gave it to me.

Pfaff Tiptronic 1171

She also gave me all of her notions as well.  For you non-sewers types, notions are all the supplies that you need to be able to sew: needles, thread, thimbles, pins, chalk, measuring tape, etc.  Included in her supplies were many spools of thread.

You sewer types are probably thinking, "That is no way to organize your grandmother's thread."  But I have to keep the thread in its drawer like this. If I organize it, it will lose its magical powers.

I'm not talking about the silly magic we see at shows.

I'm talking about REAL magic.  You know like Harry Potter magic.

Doesn't seeing Harry this young make you feel old?

You probably are wondering how it is that my supply of thread has magical powers?  Well, let me tell you.  I have owned this supply of thread for almost 20 years.  I HAVE NEVER HAD TO BUY THREAD SINCE!  I'm not kidding.  

Nona's Magical Supply of Thread always has the exact color I need for every project.  Many times I will buy fabric and think, "I should get matching thread."  Then I say to myself, "Let me give Nona's Magical Supply of Thread a chance first."  And sure enough, in that drawer will be the exact color I need.

I know each spool isn't magical, because over time I have emptied spools and had to throw them away. BUT MY SUPPLY NEVER GOES DOWN.  My drawer is just as full as when I got it 20 years ago.  

In fact just today I was hemming some pants for my daughter.  She had bought some scrubs for her trip to Guatemala.  She wanted colorful scrubs, so she bought lime green and red ones.  Sure enough, in Nona's Magical Supply of Thread were the exact colors I needed.

Maybe you are still skeptical and don't believe that Nona's thread is magical.  Maybe you are telling yourself, "Heather probably doesn't sew that much.  She probably only hems pants every couple years or so."  To you I say, "Nay. Nay."  I have sewn over 20 quilts, several years worth of Halloween costumes for five children, countless dresses for my daughters, and many many purses.  Look more closely at Nona's Magical Supply of Thread.

See?  Magical!