I know that I have repeatedly reminisced about my grandmother visiting me in Santa Fe. I suppose that time in my life is so special to me for a number of reasons. Most of all, because I was self-employed at the time, it was so easy for me to adjust my schedule and take the time to spend with her while she was here. Growing up, I rarely had the opportunity to spend time alone with her. She has five children of her own and has nine grandchildren. Usually if we were at Grandma's house, it's because everyone was at Grandma's house. There were certainly times when I was younger where I remember spending the day with her and going to the grocery store with her. But spending time with your grandmother when you're an adult is different than when you're a kid.
I cherished every minute when Grandma came to Santa Fe. We planned out each day and packed it full of fun things to do. One of the best parts of our trip was an early morning walk around the plaza, peeking into shops decked with new goods in century-old buildings. We stopped at a store called Gift N Gourmet. Those of you that know me well and know my previous stint as a sales rep, will know that I often make fun of stores that have an "N" in place of an "and." I think it is funny what people name their businesses. I especially love when they can't decide what to name their shop or don't even know what they want to sell, so they put "N Things" at the end of the shop's name. Nonetheless, Gift N Gourmet isn't a bad shop at all. It's right on the plaza and is packed full of wonderful southwestern goodies for tourists to take home and put in their kitchen. Or, in my case, even acceptable for a local. Grandma noticed the margarita set in the window. Not an unusual set for Santa Fe, but definitely substantial in the sense that the glasses were a little deeper than ones you might find at a store like Target. You could hold more margarita in these glasses. The glass was clear and tinted with blue around the edges and had a pitcher to match. The glass set brought us into the store and we began a full shopping spree.
Whenever Grandma visits anywhere, she insists on picking up little gifts for everyone in her life along the way. It's interesting, too, because she doesn't just pick up a dozen of something. Each gift is picked up because it reminds her of that person in some way. I always respected that. She will bring you a little treasure and it always speaks right to you. So while in Gift N Gourmet, she found a few things to bring home to her loved ones. She gathered a handful of things and then at the last minute, she added the margarita set. Four glasses and a pitcher. I knew immediately that this glass set was for her. I pictured her sitting on her screened-in porch with a couple of my aunts. I imagined how proud she would be to serve freshly made margaritas in her new glasses. She would wait for one of my aunts to say, "Oh, these glasses are so nice! Where did you get them?" And she would be elated to say that they came from Santa Fe. We left the store with more than one bag and walked to the car. Then we drove to the famous Santa Fe flea market.
The Santa Fe flea market is unlike any other. Well. I should say that it used to be unlike any other. Recently, it has morphed into another reincarnation which I am not particularly a fan of, but several years ago, it was an event. Grandma and I beelined it directly to the snack bar where we picked up our freshly squeezed watermelon juice. We picked which side of the outdoor market we would start our shopping and strolled along under the perfectly blue sky. We stopped at each booth and admired the craftsmanship of potters, jewelers and weavers. In between, we stopped at the little antique booths. One of the booths had almost nothing to sell and I wondered how they stayed in business. The woman manning the booth struck a conversation with me immediately and was so passionate about what was on her one banquet table. I was drawn to the set of glasses on her table. I had never seen anything like them. They are bright, transparent orange. The sun was hitting them and they looked like little jewels sparkling. I couldn't help from picking one of them up and inspecting it. I thought that it was carnival glass and would have that iridescent finish, but no, they were just pure orange throughout. It was a complete set of four and I then inspected each one to see that they were in perfect condition. The lady told me she couldn't believe she found them at a yard sale and had never seen anything like them before after so many years in the business. She was charging quite a bit for the glasses- more than I could imagine paying.
Grandma and I continued through the market. She picked up a few things here and there. When we completed our stroll, she said she wanted to go back to that lady's table. She did. And she bought me those glasses. She said that she saw my face when I was looking at them and she wanted me to have them. I couldn't believe that these beautiful glasses were mine. The nice lady wrapped each one individually in newspaper and put them in a paper bag. I could not have been more excited.
While we were packing the car with our goodies, Grandma said that we would have to do some reorganizing to my kitchen cabinets to make room for all of the glasses. She said she wanted to go home and use the new margarita set she had gotten for me. I couldn't believe it- surely she had gotten that set for herself and I tried to talk her into keeping it. She said it would be too difficult to get the glasses home and besides, she wanted to make margaritas and sit on the patio. Well who could resist an afternoon margarita in the Santa Fe sun? We stopped at the grocery store and went to the liquor department where I grabbed the tequila and Grandma reached for the margarita mix. I said, "Uhhh, no." She had just spent all of this money on these beautiful glasses, I insisted that we don't use a mix. I bought a giant bag of fresh limes. I gathered the rest of the supplies, including margarita salt.
Minutes later, at home, Grandma began unpacking the new glasses and washing them out as I squeezed the limes into the pitcher. I remember her taking a few remnants of the limes I had squeezed and adding them to the pitcher because she said it looked so pretty. We opened a bag of chips and cracked open the salsa. We brought everything outside to the patio. We ended up skipping lunch that day and went on to finish off the entire pitcher. I had the most wonderful conversation with my grandmother that afternoon- one that I will never forget. Grandma told me all about her childhood that day. She told me about her family and her friends when she was kid. We talked about her mother's food, how she learned to cook and compared many recipes. She shared so much with me that day and I am so grateful to have had that day with her.
Unfortunately, my margarita pitcher and two of the glasses broke during one of my many moves. I have constantly been on the lookout for replacements, but have not had any luck. I have found similar pieces, but not like the ones Grandma bought. However, I still have every one of my orange glasses. I have always packed them in a box of their own when moving and have used extra bubble wrap to be sure they would remain intact. I rarely use them because I am so afraid of breaking one of them. I do still have two of the margarita glasses and whenever I grab one from the cabinet, I think of that very day with her on the patio. I always wonder if I am using the glass that she used.
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