Cast of Characters: Skip Crouse

Last year a long time client, Skip Crouse, became interested in writing a book about my family and our work. Skip grew up in Tucson and has known of my family for many years. After discussing the book idea with me he decided to come to Tucson from his home in New Hampshire and take a look at our archives and get an idea of the scope of the project. He talked to Lona Bjornsen and Mark Bahti who had different takes on my family’s work and started to learn the technology necessary to catalog the various forms of information which have been produced over the years about my family. Skip came to Tucson this spring on another collecting trip and formally met my father and hung out with me while he went through more archives. Skip had enough time to share with me some of the good food we have here in Tucson. I took him to my current favorite Mexican food place, El Molcajete, as well as the taco stand outside of Food City on 22nd St. for some wonderful lunches. I don’t go for expensive food.

Skip says he is researching a book about the Patania family history in jewelry and the Thunderbird Shop tradition. My grandfather named his store the Thunderbird Curios when he first opened on the Plaza in Santa Fe in 1927. He then opened a branch in Tucson in 1937 and the store evolved into the Thunderbird Shop. Skip, my father and I spent a couple hours together which was very interesting to me. I am learning family history from this process which I didn’t know. My father is having to research information about his father and is learning new things too. Skip has become a good friend during this process and I look forward to more talks with him and my dad.