Driving into Phoenix from old-time Glendale, Arizona


Although I technically live in a separate city from Phoenix, Arizona - Glendale, I never say that I'm "going to Phoenix". I might say that I'm going downtown, and everyone I know would assume downtown Phoenix. If I were going to downtown Glendale, I would have to specifically say "I'm going to downtown Glendale".

But today a friend of mine who lives not far from me sent me a text that said that he was going to Phoenix. I knew what he meant, but it still struck me that I'd never heard anyone say that, in over twenty-five years of living in Glendale. And I think it just has to do with how all of the suburbs of Phoenix have merged together over the years. My friend has recently moved here from California, by the way, so he is seeing distinctions that to everyone I know have long been blurred.

If we time-travel, there will be a definite difference between the towns of Glendale and Phoenix. And you really don't have to go all that far back - going to the 1950s would be enough to see such a sharp distinction between Glendale and Phoenix that the street names don't even look familiar. Of course there's Grand Avenue, which has remained the same since 1885, but otherwise Glendale (or really what we would consider downtown Glendale nowadays) really does stand on its own.

In 1957, once we got south of H Street, we would be in some wide-open spaces. And not long after we passed 15th Avenue we'd be at 48th Drive. Of course this would be all cleaned up in the 1960s, and the numbering and naming system would change to match up with Phoenix. Well, mostly.

You know, I haven't been to Phoenix lately - maybe I'll go over there, it's much closer than it used to be!
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