I went on a reading binge some years ago when I couldn’t get enough of a particular kind of book. I don’t remember which book got me started, but like that first bite of chocolate, it hooked me. I began to read every book I could find with autobiographical accounts of women and frontiers.
Crossing the plains on their way to settle the West in the 1800’s, the American pioneer women packed their children and their household necessities into covered ox-drawn wagons, the prairie schooners.
As I read their stories, besides being boggled at the difficulties they encountered and usually overcame, the part that fascinated me most was this: what did they choose to bring along on their journey? Washtubs and washboards, dishes and pots and cookstoves, schoolbooks and slates. Paper and pens and ink. Dried fruits and vegetables. Black tea, coffee, salt.
They packed tools and nails, a rocking chair and grandma’s quilt. Sewing thread, fabric and needles. China washbasins. Candles. Recipes. Poultry. Supplies for the trip, and things they knew they needed that they were pretty darn sure they weren’t going to find at the end of the Oregon Trail.
Around the same time, British women were travelling by ship to join their husbands in colonial India and the Far East. Another alien culture. What did they pack? Silver tea services, trunks full of shoes and morning dresses and evening gowns, parasols, teakettles, lots of books. Face creams. Badminton sets and embroidery hoops. Pianos.
In the early 1900’s, Englishwoman Gertrude Bell, unmarried and frightfully independent, set off alone for the near east: Mesopotamia, Arabia, Persia. Among other adventures, Gertrude crossed deserts on a regular basis on horse or camelback, accompanied by local guides and guards and a Christian cook, all male. Camping in the middle of nowhere, she would unpack her canvas bathtub and have a soak in her tent while her cook prepared an elaborate tea.
What else did she carry on the mules and camels of her caravans? Crystal glassware, toiletries, cameras, art supplies, gifts for the sheiks she would get to know. Tea and sugar and bone-china cups. A hot water bottle, two pairs of eyeglasses, cigarettes, extra high-button boots, a huge fancy hat and a large mirror.
You’d think things would’ve changed a lot by now, wouldn’t you?
One of the many lists I have on my kitchen counter as I write this is the “Bring from the States” list. On it are: good black tea, eyeglasses, American Spirit cigarettes, lampshades, salad spinner, bathroom scale. Coleman’s mustard, Angostura Bitters and Pickapeppa sauce. Ghirardelli chocolate chips. An ovenproof griddle. Shoes for Mexico City. No poultry, no piano, although I admit to having already brought down embroidery hoops and a badminton set. Yes, my favorite vitamins, and parchment paper. Another box of Off DEET Towelettes. Finish nails. An old-fashioned non-electric telephone. Fine-point pens. And a few special tubes of acrylic paint.
Only a few years ago, the list would have been longer. Now, with Walmart and Costco and Sam’s Club in Puerto Vallarta, many items we can’t seem to live without are available (usually...sometimes). Now and then, we can find horseradish, although that’s rare. The Mega supermarket carries fresh mozzarella and Johnsonville sausages, L’Oreal and John Frieda shampoos and a few colors of Revlon nail polish.
Sometimes Mega has Best Foods mayonnaise and for a while they had Skippy peanut butter although lately they’ve switched to Jif. Shoot.
Oh! the joy of a phone call from a friend asking, “Do you want C&H Golden Brown Sugar? I found it!” or “Shall I buy you a bag of real lemons?” both of which arrived in Mexico quite recently. But my chocolate chip oatmeal cookies were so not the same without American brown sugar, and who can resist a squeeze of fresh yellow lemon on a caprese salad or a twist in a cocktail? Not to mention lemonade that’s not limeade.
We’ve all learned one vital maxim: if you see it and you want it, buy it. It might not be there next time.
Still, many things we know and love and use are only available north of the border. So suitcases and cars are packed full on every trip back to Mexico. (Last time, I brought down Gold Toe socks for a friend who shall remain nameless, as it is his birthday today and he might not have opened his present yet.)
Franny tells me her list for their next return trip has on it smoked paprika, sheets and bedding, Clinique moisturizer, good bath oils and fragrances, and wasabi powder. Also a meat thermometer, a pool thermometer, a coffee grinder, Dramamine, a garden hose and a kitchen faucet.
Manny is bringing fabric, clothes from TJMaxx, walnuts, cotton sheets, garden speakers, a writing desk, and hard aged cheese.
(Which reminds me. Karen brought down a wheel of Cougar Gold cheddar last time and let us taste it at Panchito’s. She rescued some for her family in the nick of time, as it was going fast. I’m adding cheddar to my list right now.)
Over the past year, I’ve brought friends car parts, books, Kindles, cameras, adapters, smoked salmon and body lotion. Friends have brought me tea and chocolate chips and rubber door stops.
Judith, who has lived here for twenty years, has long lists of things she buys north and carries south. She regularly brings back Baker’s unsweetened baking chocolate (which is now available here at seven dollars a bar) for her town-renowned brownies. She buys Lime-Away, Mobil One synthetic oil, almond butter and Crabtree & Evelyn soaps, cosmetics and rubber cement. Next trip, among other things, she’ll bring an oven thermometer and Benadryl gel, Jockey underpants and Victoria’s Secret bras. And Starbuck’s coffee. Or Peet’s.
Now, if you’re up there and not down here, you might be thinking, “Why don’t these people just adjust?”
Hey, I would reply, we have already adjusted a lot. Have you ever tried to pay a phone bill in Mexico?? What’s the longest you’ve ever waited for a plumber to show up?? Think of these imported items as our equivalent of the comfort food (mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, Haagen-Dazs, Dinty Moore beef stew, Franco-American spaghetti) that you have to eat when it’s freezing up there for six months. These things just make us feel better.
It’s funny, though. As time goes by, this missing of things happens in reverse, too. Carol, who is now back in the States, was recently bemoaning reaching for something in the grocery store (Tajin chile seasoning, maybe) and not finding it there. Franny was telling me how disappointed she was last time she ordered a hotdog at a U.S. Costco and they didn’t have any jalapeños to put on it!
That said, if you’re heading this way and have a tiny vacancy in the corner of your suitcase, drop us a line, would you? Someone down here might be in desperate need of WeedEater string or pretzel M&M’s. Or underpants.
☂ ✎ ☏
☆☆☆Happy Birthday, Tyrone!!☆☆☆
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