Courtesy Photo
Monique Jacobson with her husband and two sons, Drew and Reid.
A true daughter of Taos “We are all travelers. We seek what is true and we push past what we know to be false. The question is: Where do we go? What place is true and good and real?”
T
ssssssss
I grew up skiing
in the winter, playing tennis and horseback riding in the summers.
ssssssss
hese are lines from the “New Mexico True” advertising campaign we at the New Mexico Tourism Department launched last year. These words, inspired by our state, resonate deeply inside of me because of my connection to Taos, a connection that started well before I was born — but wasn’t fully appreciated until I left and came back. The Taos adventure began for my family over 50 years ago. My father Jean Mayer, a French immigrant, moved to Taos with little more than a single suitcase, an adventurous spirit, and an incredible drive to live the American dream. My mother Sally Mayer, a Dallas debutante, came to Taos on a ski vacation with her family (in other words, just the type of tourist it is now my job to attract to our state). After my father literally jumped over her on skis during a lesson, she was a goner. She left her high heels, matching purses, and lipstick lifestyle behind, and moved to a town where hippies far outnumbered
debutantes and the only reminder of home was Kentucky Fried Chicken. When I was born we lived at the base of the ski mountain above the bar at the St. Bernard, the hotel my father built and still operates. I grew up skiing in the winter, playing tennis and horseback riding in the summers. When my parents split and we moved to Santa Fe and then Albuquerque, weekends were spent bringing our “big city” friends back home to experience uniquely Taos adventures like cruising the Plaza during the Taos Fiestas, two-stepping to South by Southwest at barn dances, and celebrating New Years Eve in the Ski Valley, watching the torchlight parade, fireworks, and dancing at the St. Bernard. My life was literally an “adventure steeped in culture” — another one of the taglines we now use at the Tourism Department to describe the state’s distinctive travel assets. I went to college in Philadelphia and from there moved to Chicago. Paradoxically, it was being away from Taos that made me fully appreciate its magic. I realized none of the people I was in school with had grown up with a favorite restaurant like the Burrito Wagon (we had
B y M o n i q u e J a c o b s o n
18
l
2013
l
taosn e w s . c o m / a d ve n t u re s
See JACOBSON on page 20