The family at the Farewell Party given by the Jamestown Branch
L-R - Brenda (held by Cheryl, she didn't go with us to AZ but was still in touch),
Mom, Kevin, Me, Ed, Tina held by Dad, Marvin
2. By the Time I Get To Phoenix by Glen Campbell
3. Born On the Bayou by Creedence Clearwater Revival
4. Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James & The Shondells
5. Galveston by Glen Campbell
6. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head by B.J. Thomas
7. One by Three Dog Night
8. In the Year 2525 by Zager & Evans
9. Old To Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry
10. Honey by Bobby Goldsboro
11. Spinning Wheel by Blood, Sweat & Tears
12. Down On the Corner by Creedence Clearwater Revival
13. Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell
14. Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf
The summer of 1969 my father got a job which took us out to Mesa, Arizona. I remember it as a time filled with wonder and awe. We had just been out there on that long vacation the year before. We were excited to be going out where we would be closer to Elder Miller. We couldn't wait to try what we had never gotten around to trying the summer before - actually frying an egg on the sidewalk! We learned the hard way that cement and black top did indeed get unbelievably hot. But could it actually fry an egg? Mom and Dad agreed to let us try when we got there and we were going to hold them to that promise! We loaded up the station wagon, said goodbye to all of our family and friends, and put a sign on the tailgate that the branch had made for us declaring "ARIZONA OR BUST!" and headed west. I don't remember much about the actual road trip. I used to get terrible car sickness so my parents often kept me filled with Dramamine which meant I slept most of the way. My dad always used to say that I saw the entire country through the back of my eyelids. I couldn't help it, though.
When we first arrived in Mesa we stayed at the Tall Palms Motel. We thought it was like a resort! I drove by it on my last visit down to Arizona about a year ago and actually saw the building. Of course, it's all run down now but, to us, in that day, it was wonderful! We couldn't get over the whole irrigation idea. They'd flood the grassy center courtyard and we'd go out and splash all around. Who needed a pool? There was also a shuffleboard court and we all became pretty good at that. I'm not sure how long we actually stayed at the motel, it seemed like forever, but it was probably only about a week or two while my parents looked for a home.
My parents found a home for us at 1715 West 6th Street. It was a nice little neighborhood. Lots of ranch style homes lined the streets. First order of business? Fry that egg! We did - and it actually cooked! To get to our house you took Saguaro off of University Drive. Our house was small but, what we thought was the coolest thing ever, was that it had a separate bunk house out in the back yard! This came to be my brothers' bedroom. I mean, how cool is that that you got to have a completely separate place for your bedroom! I had one of the bedrooms at the front of the house with my sisters in a room next to me and my parents across the hall. We also had a dishwasher but, alas, my parents wouldn't let us use it. We still had to wash them by hand. Something about becoming spoiled and my mother's distrust of anything automated that could do a better job than she could, I think. Our washer and dryer were in a utility room that was outside along the carport. It seemed that so much of your life was spent outdoors - you had to go out to do laundry, the boys had to go outside to go to bed - and we'd soon discover that the door to your classrooms at school also emptied to the outside! No indoor hallways here. Such a foreign concept for us! Another peculiar (to us) concept to this house was that there was an alley running along the back which is where you put your trash cans. The garbage trucks would rumble down this alley and take it all away. It also provided shortcuts to friends' houses. We had good neighbors who also had lots of kids.
Another big change for us was that our church was just about a mile or two away. I had never attended Primary before because we only had one car and dad needed it to get to work. Primary was held during the week at that time and there was no way to get me up to Jamestown, NY to attend. But here, on Wednesday afternoons, the kids would grab their bikes after school and we'd all ride our bikes down to West 8th Street, over to Alma School Road and over to the chapel. If you were to look at this route today you'd shriek, "You little kids rode bikes along here???" as you looked at a very busy divided highway with cars racing everywhere. However, in 1969-1970, these were country roads with little traffic. There was a Circle K at the intersection of 8th and Alma School Road where we'd sometimes stop for treats but that was the only place I remember where there was anything going on. Up on University Drive it was very commercial, but we didn't go that way - we always headed toward either Whittier Elementary or the chapel for the Mesa 16th Ward. We belonged to a ward now - not a branch. This was another big change. So many people in Mesa were LDS like us. It was so cool to not be such an oddity! Since the church was close enough that I could get myself there, this is the only year I had Primary. I looked forward to it every week and couldn't wait until I could go up and put my birthday pennies into Birthday Betsy for Primary Children's Hospital!
Other differences were the presence of American Indians and Mexicans. The Indian kids came in from the reservations to attend school. They were mostly Navajo and the nicest kids ever. The white kids tended to make you want to work for their friendship - the Indians and Mexicans just came over and said hi. Well, except for this one guy named George who wanted to fight my brother, Marvin, the first day of school. I think George's girlfriend thought Marvin was cute or something so he figured he better let Marv know whose turf was whose. For the life of me I can't remember the outcome of the fight or if it even happened. I was in my own world and having a great time.
Me and my new friends - I was closest to
Teresa Martinez, who I am next to in this picture
Playing jacks was HUGE here. I'd sit in the outdoor breezeways and watch them organize tournament after tournament. There was much discussion about the different kinds of jacks and which bouncy ball was the best. People carried their jacks around in little cloth sacks. You didn't mess with another persons' jacks. I practiced and practiced until I came to be at least a little respectable in the game. I learned all the variations for the different stages. It was something I could do even though I was short. I, in turn, shared with them the east coast jump rope songs and games. We got pretty good at chinese jump rope. My fourth grade teacher was supposed to be Mrs. Greer but she came down with some terrible sickness, and was out most of the year so we had Mrs. Gudger as a substitute.
My oldest brother, Ed, attended Westwood High School where he was on the swim team or dive team. And Kevin attended Carson Junior High. Ed figures prominently in my memories of Arizona. I had always sort of idolized him but he really seemed to shine here. He was handsome and it's the first time I remember him dating. The youth at church put on road shows and I remember thinking how they were just like the movies - they just seemed to be such amazing productions! Ed was a good singer and I believe he participated in them. He also got a job at a bowling alley. My brother was a working man and he was driving! He seemed so grown up. He was also always experimenting with electricity and radio waves. He rigged up some sort of radio in the house and ran some wire across the front yard. One day the neighbor's daughter was running across our yard for some reason and caught the wire right at her neck. She was ok but it left a mark. The parents were furious and made threats about calling the authorities and they insisted he take down the wire. I remember that Ed was not happy, my parents weren't happy, her parents' weren't happy. Altogether not a good scene. Ed's interest in all things electrical and radio (among many other things) continues today.
At Christmas that year, my great aunt and uncle, Gwen and Jeff Maurer came out to spend it with us. I remember going to the Sky Harbor airport to pick them up - that might have been my first time at an airport. I was so glad they were going to be there. They were always a big part of our celebrations back in Pennsylvania and I was a little worried about what Christmas would be like here where we had no family and it didn't even snow! I still had a tan in December! I don't even think I wore a coat the whole time we lived there! They came and we got to show them around to the cool stuff in the area - like Casa Grande and the desert and the reservations.
Aunt Gwen and I in the desert
Me at a museum somewhere in Arizona!
OK - check out those pants! Nice, right?
It was always a favorite tradition of mine to go and get the Christmas tree. We'd search and search until we found the "perfect" one. The trees were much different in Arizona, though. We searched and searched but it became apparent that we were not going to be able to find a full tree like we had back home. I was very sad about this. The tree was the center of the holiday magic for me. It was beautiful to look at with the lights off, all twinkly and sparkly. It was also home base to where the presents were - and that was paramount! We didn't find a tree on our first excursion out, but later that week my Dad came home with, what looked like a pile of branches. It was, in fact, several of the scrawny trees from the lot. Next thing I know he's sawing branches off the trees and pulling out his drill. We were very curious about what he was up to. He said, "You'll see!" After a few hours of busyness, he called us into the front room where we beheld a beautiful full tree - or at least fuller than anyone we'd seen so far! What he'd done was take one tree and drill holes into the center trunk. Then he cut the branches off the other trees and started plugging them into the holes of the trunk of the one tree. I thought it was brilliant!!! I still do!! That was a memorable Christmas. I don't remember any of the gifts but I remember we played and had fun! We loved to play Monopoly and I remember a game that lasted for days. Christmas day we went outside and played basketball - mindboggling! It was unlike any of our other Christmases before or after. It was uniquely our Arizona Christmas!
On this playlist I included songs that actually came out before this year but, in my childhood memories, they are linked with Arizona. Glen Campbell was HUGE in our house and he seemed to be singing about different places all the time - places which were foreign to me before, but were now places I knew a little about. My father was very impressed with Bobbie Gentry's husky voice and I love her "Ode to Billie Joe" even today. Story songs were popular and I remember getting all choked up when I listened to Bobby Goldsboro sing a story about a guy's wife who dies. Most people think of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but I can't hear "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" without having a flashback of driving around in Arizona. A new sound was emerging into my life. Ed was listening to new kinds of music - vocals sung with raspy voices and a sense of urgency. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but I was soon to become just as in love with it as he. Little did I know I was witnessing the emergence of an icon known as Creedence Clearwater Revival.
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