At a Burbank flea market about 28 years ago, I saw some old
photographs taken in the Yukon Territory in the 1920’s. The plates
were very expensive so I tried to get the seller to part with one of
them, but he insisted on keeping the set intact. I wish I could go
back in time and purchase them because there was a little native girl
eating an ice cream cone that has fascinated me ever since.

The idea of an Eskimo eating a frozen treat is a delicious absurdity –
actually, she was probably from a more southerly tribe like the Kaska or Tutchone since Eskimos only inhabit a sliver of the very
northernmost part of the Yukon. I don’t know who she was, but
considering the decade it was a good bet that it was her first ice
cream cone.

Researching the time and peoples, I came across the image of a girl
in a cotton fabric dress. The pattern was a repeated image of a pot of flowers. The seamstress probably saw this as an abstract design
because the whole dress was made with the little pots upside down.
The final photograph of her is especially pleasing to me because the
strawberry ice cream is like Rudolph the Reindeer’s nose –- a spot
of impossible color in the landscape.