Writing about good news, in old-time Phoenix


I remember back when I was a kid reading about why newspapers only seem to focus on bad news, not good news. The example, as I recall, was a big headline that said, "Man drives safely to work, then safely home, and has a good dinner!" or something like that. And since so much good news happens all of the time, it really would be ridiculous to try to report on it. I might say something like that I haven't tripped over my wiener dogs, and that my air conditioning is working just fine. I might also say that I don't have COVID-19, because I'm writing this in Arizona in July of 2020. And yes, I do write good news, on my Facebook page, every day. It's just the kind of nonsense that people like me like to hear, that life goes on, that friends and family are doing well. I've done this kind of thing for years, and I know that it genuinely puzzles people. I once posted a link to an Internet Movie Database (IMDB) for a friend of mine who had just visited, who was a Hollywood producer, and the comments seemed to puzzle a lot of people, like is he dead? No, he's alive and well, and he just visited me.

Anyway, in this blog I try to imagine myself in the ordinary day-to-day life of old-time Phoenix. I'm no expert on history, nor do I want to be - I'm a time-traveler, and the one thing I love is to travel back to old-time Phoenix and do some ordinary stuff, and have a good day. So here's some good news.


I'm going to spin the way-back machine to 1942, and take a walk across 1st Street and Adams in Phoenix. The photo was obviously taken to show the Balke Building, which is interesting, but that's not what I'm going to talk about right now. Yeah, I'm making this up, my presumptions will be reasonable. I'm the guy in the fedora. If you're wondering why I'm kinda blurry, the photo was taken with a long exposure time, and I'm moving.

As you may have noticed, I'm not being run over by that car. Looks like the driver of that car knew what to do with a red light, and his brakes (which would have been four-wheel drums) work just fine. I'm not as young as I used to be, but I think I cut a dashing figure in my long overcoat. I wonder if the women standing there looking the other way will watch me walk by?


Since this photo isn't in motion, I'm assuming that the car turning there in front of Gosnell's is stopping for the lady with the mink collar (or is that squirrel? I really don't know). Note the blurry people, moving too quickly to stay in focus for the exposure. The long exposure, by the way, is the reason that this photo has such rich and sharp detail. It was taken by the McCulloch brothers, who used a large format camera, with a tripod. This isn't a snapshot!

The fire hydrant there (which is still in the same place today, by the way) doesn't have a fire engine hooked up to it, so it's reasonable to assume that no buildings are on fire. See, I told you that reporting on good news was kinda silly! And wonderful.

Good news is all around us, and I will continue to report on it. Don't thank me, it's my pleasure!
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