(Wagon)Trains of Thought

Cool Autumn weather stirs up memories of Mom’s determined effort to learn a frontier recipe following our family’s move near Kit Carson’s childhood home.

Her long-ago recipe notes describe kitchen challenges my mother faced during the Great Migration when she stirred pots of what she described as a totally unfamiliar “pioneer” recipe: Texas Chili.

The Santa Fe Trail, Voyage of Discovery, edited by Mary L. Van Camp

Mom, a first grade teacher who would later illuminate American History for 8th graders, had little experience cooking with any meat. She had grown up on Alabama’s Gulf Coast with a family diet based on shrimp, oysters and other plentiful (and inexpensive) seafood.

But like many of the more than 6 million other African Americans who relocated away from familiar regional food ingredients during the Great Migration (1915-1970), she tackled the chili con carne challenge with determination.