Exploring my Apache Junction, Arizona


I don't live in Apache Junction, but I've spent a lot of time there. But apparently it looks so different to me that many people really don't believe that I know anything about the area. I don't know the restaurants, the tourist places, I haven't done any hiking in the mountains, the list goes on an on of things that I know nothing about. So when most people want to talk to me about Apache Junction, there doesn't seem to be much we have in common.

Walk with me. Mine is the Apache Junction of a person on foot, with no particular place to go. I've walked around Apache Junction, usually alone, sometimes with dogs.

So that's where you start - on foot. And we're not walking across a parking lot into a building, or along a trail that's marked. There won't be anything that we can check off our list of having done, and it won't impress anyone on Facebook. Mine is the Apache Junction of Andrew Wyeth.

Well, not exactly, of course, he was in Chadds Ford. But everything I ever learned about seeing the world as he saw it came from the book that his wife Betsy wrote about him, called Wyeth at Kuerners. I got that book when I was 17, and have read it more times than I can count. It amazed me that he would sometimes just go out for a walk, look at things, maybe make a few sketches, and then come back later, maybe a year later. My desire to be connected with the world of aesthetics and beauty received a severe jolt when I read a quote from him which said something about someone who was admiring a beautiful sky while their big feet smashed down on some fragile flower. And there's no getting away from that.

I will choose my steps carefully, but I know just being there causes me to destroy things. Every step I take in the desert causes erosion, and probably kills something that has been struggling to grow. I'm so very sorry about that, but it can't be helped. I will walk as carefully as I can. If I see a cloud of dust rising from someone doing doughnuts out in the desert, I accept that we are both destroying the desert in our own way, just by being there.

So I won't criticize others, I will focus on what's around me. And the first thing I look for is creosote. That's the wonderful plant that makes the smell of the desert, especially after it rains. I find some and squeeze the berries between my fingers to release the smell. I may take a photo, or I may not. I don't mind photography, but I won't turn our walk into a photography session, that's too distracting for me.

Here, you take the leash, I'm getting tired. We must have walked at least a quarter of a mile. The shadows are getting long, and the Arizona sun is lighting up the Superstition Mountains. Every few seconds it changes, and it's worth a look. And no thank you, I don't want to look at the picture you just took on your phone, I have everything right here. I can see it, I can touch it, I can smell it. This is paradise, this is my Apache Junction.

Image at the top of this post: Postcard of the Superstition Mountains in the 1960s.
If you liked this article, and would like to see more, please consider supporting history adventuring on Patreon. If you're already a patron, thank you! You make this happen!

Click here to become a Patron!
History adventuring posts are shared there daily including "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, videos, and super high-definition photos of historic Phoenix, Arizona. Discounts for seniors, students, teachers, and veterans.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more