Return to Park City

I was skiing in Utah, for the second time, with The New York Times ski club, although I had already left my job there earlier in the month to live in New Mexico. The weather was good some days, not so good on others, and on one of the not so good days we went shopping, when I found this ornament. I don’t remember traveling with the group on the way out. But I remember flying home with them, because we had to spend a night in Cleveland, courtesy of Continental Airlines, when bad weather forced the airports in New York to shut down. We checked into the hotel late and raced to the bar before it closed. To make the most of the little time left, we began drinking prairie fire shots. You fill a shot glass with tequila, add six drops of Tabasco sauce, and swirl the glass in hand before downing. The Tabasco whirls up like a flame (or like a red scarf swirling behind a flashy ice skater), and it burns all the way down.

Papier-mâché Park City, Utah, 1988 skater with red knit scarf

Acquired: March 9, 1988
Number: 0112

Size: 4.75 inches tall

Olympics opening ceremony

The Winter Olympics are under way and I’ve got a lot of skiing, skating and sledding penguins to get us through the games. These two sledders used to be four, all identical, that I bought in the early years of the collection when all the ornaments seemed to come in sets of four. That’s the only explanation for why I deliberately bought four penguin ornaments that were exactly the same. They might be the first ornaments I bought for myself. I believe the previous sets of four were all given to me as gifts. Later, realizing that I didn’t need all of the sledders, I decided to spread the penguin love around a little and I gave two of them away. One went to my brother and sister-in-law and their family, but I don’t remember who got the other one. Because I gave these ornaments away before I started assigning numbers, I don’t count them in the total. I bought the sledders on my first visit to Park City, Utah, and the other ski areas near Salt Lake City. Park City was the venue for giant slalom and two snowboard events, GS and halfpipe, at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Wooden sledders

Acquired: March 10, 1984. Park City, Utah. Rocky Mountain Christmas Gifts

Number: 0028 0029

Price: $12.93

Size: 2.25 inches tall