Happy Anniversary, AOL-J! Welcome to Tucson!

Happy Anniversary, AOL J-Land!  As part of the festivities, I now present a time-traveling, virtual tour of Tucson, Arizona, spring 1986.

In January, 1986, John inherited some money that allowed us to put our stuff in storage in Columbus Ohio, install Jenny Dog on a mattress in the back of our newly-purchased Dodge van, and drive around the country looking for some place that it wasn't winter.  We went as far south as Key West, as far north as Montreal, and then headed west, mostly following defunct Route 66 until it was time to drop south for a visit with John's sister, Martie, in Phoenix.  We hung out there for perhaps five days, during which John bought a Chinon camera for my birthday.  Then we drove south to Tucson, ostensibly to see Old Tucson, a combination movie location and tourist attraction.

We stayed at the Ghost Ranch Lodge, a neat old place with an extensive cactus garden. On our first full day in Tucson, we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which is full of the animals, plants and even minerals of the Sonoran Desert.  The day clouded up.  When it started to rain and then to hail, we ran for the shelter of a ramada (basically a roof on poles).  It didn't help much.  The roof of the ramada was made of saguaro ribs, the skeletal sticks hidden inside the giant saguaro cactus.  The ramada was good at providing shade, but not so good for blocking rain and hail.

Boy, the mountains were pretty, though, when John took pictures that afternoon. The cloud hung below the top of the Catalinas (above).  We thought that was about the best "dramatic weather" (as John called it) we'd ever seen.

When the rain was over, we went to Old Tucson as advertised.  The desperados at the right, stars of one of the four different gunfights stages each day, were part of the show.  So were the buildings, some of them deteriorating adobe ones built for the movie Arizona in the 1930s, others suitable for gunfights, movie and tv exterior shots, or sales of food or souvenirs.  The High Chapperal was filmed at Old Tucson, and lots of films, from John Wayne vehicles to The Three Amigos. Sadly, about half of Old Tucson was destroyed by fire about a decade later, thanks to a disgruntled, mentally-ill employee. It's been rebuilt, but it just isn't making it financially any more.

To make a long story short, we loved Tucson.  Two weeks later, John was negotiating to buy our first house as homeowners over a pay phone at Gilbert Ray campground.  We eventually had to sell that house on Grannen, but it was great while it lasted.  Below is a view from behind the house. 


We were so taken by the whole Tucson / Arizona / western sensibility that we bought western shirts and hats (I got my black Silverado hat at a mall in Albuquerque), and even went to an NCAA rodeo competition at Old Tucson. Here is a picture of John "gone native," standing in front of a saguaro. In case you're wondering, no, he doesn't smoke cigars anymore. We still have the hats, though. I also have some gray cowboy boots that cannot be worn without pain--at least, not by me. 

Judging from the placement of the photo in the album, I probably took the picture of John right after our first trip to Tombstone, site of the famous shootout between the Earps and the Clantons. But that's another story.


I heard Arizona Governer Janet Napolitano say yesterday that Arizona's population (if I recall correctly) has gone up 40% per decade.  An amusing, mostly-true book called Arizona 101 says that most people in Arizona would like the borders to have been closed right after they arrived, just to preserve what's uniquely Arizona from overdevelopment.  Well, there's still lots of desert in Arizona, but it's very true that things have changed since we got here in 1986.  Hardly anyone wears a cowboy hat any more, except during Rodeo Days, which are still a school holiday in March. Valley National Bank is now Bank One, Ev Meacham is long gone from the governorship, thank goodness, and Indian jewelry stores and IBM have given way to call centers and companies built around optics or defense contracting.  It's still a pretty neat place, though. And you are (virtually) there!

Karen

P.S. Thanks, everyone, for stopping by.