History Adventuring

I love time-traveling in old Phoenix, and one of my favorite things to do is to page through the newspaper on the Library of Congress. Today I was in 1890, the first year of the Arizona Republican newspaper (the same one that's still around today, although they dropped the "N" in 1933). I'm not looking for anything in particular, or anything important, I'm just looking. And my eye was caught by some For Sale ads, which I thought would be fun to share with you. I'll tell you what I see, and what my best guesses are, and I'd love to hear what you think. Like I say, this is the kind of ordinary trivia that makes all of this seem so human, and precious, to me. Ordinary life is the most wonderful life there is! Let's see, it's 1890, so Phoenix is twenty years old already. A thriving community! I see that there are six restaurant tables for sale. Nothing I could use. Hartwell's was at 27 S. 2nd Street. The burros, ponies, pack saddles, and m

In the last couple of years I've been trying to get out IRL (In Real Life) to do some history adventuring. My ankle kept me from walking much for many years, and now I know just when it's feeling up to it, and I can walk a bit. It's wonderful, and one of my favorite places is the peace and quiet of the canals of Phoenix. I don't drive anymore, so I'm always enthusiastic if someone wants to do some adventuring. I know a lot of wonderful places in and around Phoenix, and they aren't museums. And I have come to realize that it can be kind of confusing to most people. Because there really is no destination. Walk with me. We need to get out of the car, away from the main streets. We really aren't going anywhere in particular. If we get hungry, we can go to a restaurant. I will try to be polite to you, but I will encourage you to step away from returning all of those phone calls you needed to make, and texting people to catch up. By all means take your phon

Although when I'm history adventuring, I usually time-travel just in my imagination, this actually happened. The story that you are about to read is true, and no names have been changed. I found the article in the December 1918 Phoenix newspaper, and I'll try to explain what happened. First of all, yes, she shot and killed him, and yes, she was exonerated as it was declared justifiable self-defense. The charge was manslaughter. Mary was 29 and Robert was 52. She was young and pretty, and he wasn't. He was a violent alcoholic. And according to her testimony, he beat her on several occasions. And yet she said that she never intended to kill him that night (or morning, it was 2 am) while he was playing cards at their Christmas party, which was at 514 N. 9th Street (9th Street and Taylor). She said that she intended just to scare him, and apparently she wasn't a very good shot with a gun. That Christmas night when he got drunk and hit her, she shot him. And it would

Let's go time-traveling to Phoenix, Arizona in 1926! It's the roaring twenties, the country is booming, and I've heard great things about Phoenix. Let's go take a look. Sure! I'm sure we can find some place that plays jazz! Let's start by visiting a citrus grove over at the base of "Camel's Back" Mountain. I love the smell of oranges! Although they may be grapefruit, or lemons, I really don't know. Get a photo of me, I'll sit here with my new hat on. Be sure to get my profile, that's my good side! Here, I'll even roll up my sleeves, it makes me look as if I were working! Central and Monroe in 1926, Phoenix, Arizona. You're looking south. OK, here we are downtown. We're Central at Monroe, looking south. Look at that brand-new building back there, built last year by George Luhrs and his son, George Junior. Looks like a busy city! I don't hear any jazz, but I can hear the choir singing there at the church. That

Downtown Glendale is an amazing place, with houses that go back over 100 years. I have mixed feelings about the area, as I know that the city of Glendale would like to see the businesses there to be more successful, and more filled with crowds of people, which really doesn't happen in spite of the promotions that are regularly done. So it is, by comparison of the old quaint areas of places like, for example, Pasadena, kinda sad. There are antique shops, and interesting places to walk, but the neighborhood still seems kinda rough, and there are still plenty of empty buildings, and empty lots. But I love it. I don't want my history adventuring to be just like going to Disneyland, with everything so crowded that all you remember later is standing in line, and everything so perfect that it's unrealistic. Downtown Glendale isn't crowded, and there are enough rough edges that you won't feel like you're in artificial place. If you're pondering going there, I

As I was stumbling through my collection of old-time Phoenix images today, an ad for the Ford Hotel, which was at 2nd Avenue and Washington in 1895 caught my eye. They proclaimed "The finest winter climate in the world". Now I know that there really wasn't any "truth in advertising" then, so I've seen some outrageous statements made in old ads. But this one is true. Assuming the climate in Phoenix in the winter was as nice as it's been for me for the past three decades here, I can vouch for the truth of the statement. Now don't get me wrong, summers in Phoenix are just awful. Really awful. And I know, I've seen just as many summers as winters. And if you were to ask me where I'd like to be in the summer, I think that I can safely say, "Just about anywhere else". For the past few summers I've been housesitting for a friend of mine in Los Angeles, and I just count the days that I'm able to get away for a couple of weeks

I'm in the mood for some time-traveling, and today I'd like to go visit Phoenix in 1958. Come along with me! The Emerald Pool Lodge in 1958, 1502 N. 46th Street, Phoenix, Arizona. We need a place to stay, and luckily we can stay at the Emerald Pool Lodge. Of course there's a pool! What? You don't swim? Oh, it will muss up your hair? OK, you can watch me. Looks like there's a nice view of Camelback Mountain, too! Sunscreen? No, of course not, this is 1958! Arizona State President Grady Gammage in 1958, Tempe, Arizona. I have an idea! Let's go over to the college in Tempe, I understand that it just became a University this year. Yes, ASC is now ASU. I wonder if I'll ever get used to that? There's President Gammage, I'm waving to him, but he's not looking at me, he's looking at that new banner. Wow, Arizona State University! It's about time. And I understand they're building a new stadium to replace Goodwin, let's go

The winter in Phoenix is absolutely glorious, I know. When I'm out and about, I smile at my neighbors and they smile back, and I know what we're both thinking: "This is what we've been waiting for!" Because let's face it, as much as I love living here in the winter, summers are awful. So it's all about looking forward to the winters, which are beyond amazing - Phoenix is the best place to be in the winter, the sky is so blue, and... oops, now I sound like the Chamber of Commerce! Of course there are drawbacks, and it's always been true, even in old-time Phoenix. Because people followed the summer there, from places where the winters aren't so nice. Let's time-travel back to Phoenix in the winter in the 1930s. To our 21st-Century eyes, it would look absolutely wonderful, wide-open spaces, uncrowded. But not to the people who lived there at the time! Because then, as now, there were winter visitors. And back then it absolutely overwhelmed Ph

Today I'm going to visit Phoenix in 1948. No, I wasn't there, but I have some images in my collection from that year so I thought that it would be fun to go there. Come on! Let's start at Central Avenue and Washington, and go to the Walgreens. We'll be doing some walking, so I want to get something to put on my corns, and I'm sure they'll have something! I'll buy you a Coke, how's that! No, it's 1948, your debit card won't work there. And look at that! I wish I had that convertible there in the intersection! I just walk everywhere. It's such a nice day, I wonder why they don't have the top down? Look at that sky! No, I wouldn't worry about rain, those clouds there behind the tower on the Heard Building just look nice, not threatening. And it's such a beautiful and clear day, I can see all of the way to the Westward Ho! Miss Sunnyslope 1948, Gloria Brady Since it's 1948, I thought it would be fun to visit Miss Sun

Since it's Christmastime, I've been paging through the old Phoenix newspapers at the Library of Congress site, trying to understand more about how people celebrated Christmas in old-time Phoenix. I'm interested in everything, what they ate, what they did, and of course the gifts they gave. So when I found this 1920 ad for the "Incomparable Gift" - a vacuum cleaner to make it a Royal Christmas for her, I stopped in my tracks, and I thought "really?" Now, I'm old marketing guy, and I know that just because something is advertised as a great Christmas gift doesn't mean it is. Personally, I've made a lot of ads in my day, and I suppose that if the "Acme Coal Company" wanted me to draw a cartoon of happy children receiving lumps of coal for Christmas, I would. But maybe not. I draw the ethical line somewhere! Anyway, of course I laughed at the thought of some idiot husband giving his wife a vacuum cleaner for Christmas! And now I&

I never went to Bob's Big Boy in Phoenix in the 1960s, mostly because I wasn't there, and besides I would have just been a little kid. From what I understand, it was the place to be for young adults, and one of the stops along Central Avenue, where the cars would cruise back and forth, seeing and being seen. Bob's was at Central Avenue and Thomas, where the Navajo Code Talker Memorial statue is nowadays. And that's really all I know, but that's not gonna stop me from going to Bob's in my imagination! Jump into my '57 Chevy (of course!) and let's go! I must say that you look lovely tonight. Your hair blowing in the wind makes me think that I'm in some kind of James Dean movie. Are you chewing gum? Can I have some? Thank you! Uh, I meant if you had another stick, but that was nice. Is your lipstick bubble-gum flavored? No? Seemed that way to me! Who are you waving at? Oh, I see, a carload of your girlfriends. I hope they saw how shiny my car i

Recently as I was paging through the Phoenix newspaper on the Library of Congress site, my eye was caught by a 1919 ad for the Phoenix Bakery advertising fruit cake, which they called the "Christmas Gift Deluxe". I also noted that they had been in business since 1881. And it got me thinking about fruit cake in general. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I've never tasted fruit cake. It's possible that I did when I was a kid, as I do remember seeing them at my grandma's. She also had wax fruit in a bowl, and I may have tasted those, too. If so, I can't imagine that they tasted very different. And I really am wondering now if fruit cake, which is such a running joke nowadays, since as the ad says it "will keep indefinitely" if maybe when they were made in 1919, or 1881, they tasted good back then. Or at least to the people in old-time Phoenix? And so I'm imagining myself in those days. I really have no idea how unusual it wo

Last night I went to the get-together at the Art Institute of Phoenix, at 23rd Avenue and Dunlap. It was hosted by one of the teachers who called the event "The End: 23 years on 23rd Avenue". And I gotta admit that it shook me a bit that the mid-nineties were quite so long ago! And since it's now part of the history of Phoenix, it's naturally gotten me thinking about college education in Phoenix. Although I'm a "high-tech" kind of guy, I preferred doing classes in person. I tried teaching online once, and I hated it. That may seem kind of strange for someone like me to say, because I teach computer graphics, but my style of teaching was more personal, and more professional. I'll see if I can explain. At the risk of sounding like a commercial, the Art Institute of Phoenix prepared students to work in their chosen creative field. And from day one, back when I started teaching in 1996, I liked that. This wasn't just a school that gave out deg

I've been lucky. In 1990 I landed a corporate job with one of the biggest banks in Arizona, called Valley National Bank, or Valley Bank for short. I had just moved back from Los Angeles, and I was hoping that I would be able to continue having a career in graphic design, but really all that mattered to me is that I wasn't going back to LA. I wanted to stay in Phoenix. I got the job! Unfortunately, in 1990 I had joined a sinking ship. Valley Bank had been in terrible financial trouble, and I had no idea. The people who knew, who worked there, told me about it, and my favorite quote was "If Valley Bank goes bankrupt, everyone would have to leave Arizona, and the last person turns out the light." That should give you some idea how heavily Arizona had been invested in this bank, and had been for ninety years when I started. Yes, ninety years. But I got lucky again when Bank One bought Valley Bank and poured in a ton of bucks (as you can see, I'm no financial ex

Although I technically became an adult in Minneapolis, by doing stuff like graduating from high school, driving a car, being able to vote, etc., I really didn't grow up until after I moved to Phoenix, at age 19, and it took quite a while. Sometimes I think that I'm still working on it! There's no other way to describe my childhood in Minnesota than to say "sheltered". My family wasn't rich, but I never wanted for anything. My parents paid for everything, and the money that I earned on my paper route I kept, and spent on Matchbox cars, and stuff like that, and I was able to save the rest. I had enough money to buy a car when I was eighteen, an MG Midget for $500, and after just about rebuilding everything on it, I drove it to Arizona. Now, over forty years later, I'm trying to remember how it felt. It was exciting, and it was scary. I really had no idea what Phoenix looked like - it could have had sand dunes, and there could have been stage coaches r

As someone who's interested in the history of Phoenix, I spend a lot of time wondering how people lived in the desert in old-time Phoenix. And that really spans a lot of time, from recent history to ancient. I sometimes wonder how people dared to climb Camelback Mountain before the invention of cell phones (actually I'm old enough to have done that)? And I very often ask friend who grew up in Phoenix how in the world they did that? I grew up in Minneapolis, where you could actually go out and play all day in the summer. The list goes on and on. Of course the answer is always the same: they did what they could. Those who couldn't take the desert either died, or moved on elsewhere. The people who stayed learned how to live with it. And from the research I've been doing, the desert has been a very harsh place going back to the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. Hot and dry! What really boggles my mind are the native people, going back to the Hohokams. They didn&#

As someone who is planning to die of old age someday, I've been pondering what that would have meant in old-time Phoenix. Nowadays, of course, everyone wants to know what people died of, even if they're very, very old. I have no idea what the obligations of doctors are now, but presumably they can't write that someone died of old age anymore. It's true that people are living longer than they did in old-time Phoenix, but they're still dying of the one thing that can't be stopped, old age. I don't know how Dayton A. Reed, whose marker from the Pioneers' Cemetery, at 11th Avenue and Jefferson, states that he was 53, died, but it could have been of old age. Nowadays 53 doesn't seem all that old, especially to someone like me, who's older than that, but I'm inclined to think that if someone passed away at that age in old-time Phoenix, it would have been accepted simply as God's will. By the way, as a kid, and even a young adult, I pre

Because I like dogs so much, most people assume that I don't like cats, and that's simply not true. I have known many remarkable cats in my life, and I've spend a lot of quality time with my feline friends. My relationship with cats is different than with dogs, but cats are different from dogs, and I respect that. With dogs I tend to immediately start flopping ears, but with cats that would just be undignified. I also don't go and pick up cats, something tells me that they resent being treated as if they were a stuffed animal as much as dogs do. And since I'm thinking about cats today, I'm pondering what their life was like in old-time Phoenix. I found the ad at the top of this post on the Library of Congress site in a Phoenix newspaper from 1918. Of course it's a registered Angora, and that's why it was worth paying for the photo, and the ad. But Fairy Feathers wouldn't have been the only representative of the feline world in Phoenix, I'm s

The story of the growth of greater Los Angeles, especially the San Fernando Valley, has been blurred by the fiction surrounding it. Of course, everyone knows that it was just a bunch of evil rich guys who conspired to get even richer. It makes a wonderful story, especially if it includes mysterious happenings, and detectives. And the reality of it isn't really all that interesting, but I like it, and maybe you will, too. I'll try to keep it interesting. In 1910, when that ad was published in the LA Herald, no one in their right mind would have been interested in buying land in the San Fernando Valley. It was bone dry, dusty and windy. The places that you wanted to be were over by what is now downtown Los Angeles, even Hollywood, or Santa Monica. Even Calabasas. And the reason for that is that these places at least had half a chance of having a decent water supply. Not so much in the valley. But there were people with big plans, and it went way beyond just bringing water to

As someone who is now living much longer than I ever expected, and probably will live a lot longer, I've been thinking about longevity in general, and what growing old would have been like in old-time Phoenix. Time-travel with me. People definitely lived to a ripe old age, even back in Charles Hayden's time (that's him up there, he was the father of Senator Carl Hayden). The difference, of course, having to do with what we call "quality of life". Of course, they didn't know that cataract surgery would become pretty much routine for people who had lived over sixty years, and of course dentistry is much improved. Nowadays even if people have lost their teeth in their senior years, they can be replaced surgically. And now I'm pondering how much people just accepted as "old age" in old-time Phoenix. Then, as now, people were careful to look their best in photos. Presumably a bit of old-time "Photoshop" was done by photographers to

I was talking with some friends today who were remembering how great the movie "Tombstone" was, and especially the performance of Val Kilmer, as Doc Holiday, who was dying of TB (tuberculosis). If you haven't seen it, I personally highly recommend it. And although it was just a movie, the portrayal of someone dying of TB was fairly accurate. Tuberculosis is a particularly terrible and slow way to die, because it slowly makes it impossible for you to breath. It was, and still is, a very contagious disease, spread by people who might be in the same room with you, coughing (which went all all of the time), or touching you, or sharing a glass, or a bottle of whiskey with you. So make no mistake, catching TB at that time was a death sentence, and a lot of people traveled to where the air was dry, like Arizona, in hopes of being able to breathe, and live. In the movie "Tombstone" Val Kilmer really does give an accurate portrayal of how a man like him would have

I just love to browse through the pages of the Phoenix newspaper on the Library of Congress site. And as usual, I'm not looking for anything in particular, I'm just looking. My interest is for the ordinary things of life of old-time Phoenix, and I'm especially tickled by a little article that I found about some hats that were found by the Chief of Police. No, I have no idea really what this was all about, and if the mystery was ever solved. Possibly someday I'll stumble on another article that explains what happened, or maybe you will, but in the meantime I feel my imagination, running away with me. Let's time-travel back to 1910, we're at the police station. I'll be assigned to the case. My name is Friday. I'm a detective. "Friday!", I heard someone shout to me, "The Chief wants to see you. Something about hats." I knocked and walked into Chief Moore's office. He didn't look up. "Chief?", I said, "Yo