The day I came home to Phoenix, in 1989

Actually, I don't remember the exact day that I came home to Phoenix. It was 1989, and it must have been July or August because it was ridiculously hot. I had been living in California for many years and I had forgotten that the temperature can be in the nineties, in the middle of the night.

Now hold on there, I grew up in Minneapolis, and moved to Phoenix when I was 19, so "coming home" should have been Minneapolis, right? But Phoenix was, and is, my home, and in this post I'll see if I can explain my feelings.

I moved to Phoenix when I was 19, in 1977, and after seven years finished my four-year degree at ASU, and then decided to move to The Big City. To me, there are only two Big Cities in the United States, New York and Los Angeles (sorry, Chicago!), and since I was in Phoenix, and had no intention of ever seeing snow and cold again, I moved to California.

I was thirty-one, and working at a great corporate job in LA, when one day my entire department was laid off. And for a few months I wandered around, looking for work, and collecting Unemployment. It was depressing to say the least, so I called an old friend in Phoenix  to ask if I could visit, and sleep on the floor. He was happy to say yes, and I did just that. Getting out of town would feel great, I thought, get my mind off of worrying about the resumes that I'd sent out, and was waiting to get an answer to. And of course, see some old friends, good for the soul. I really had no intention of moving back to Phoenix, but then I fell in love.

Yes, this is a love story, I'll admit that. But there's no woman to blame, it was Phoenix. She embraced me in a way that made me feel that I'd come home. The skies were so blue! There were no lines at gas stations! And the cost of living was much lower! I wrote a letter to Sacramento asking if it were possible to mail my Unemployment check out of state, and they appeared happy to do it.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my time in Southern California and went back many times to visit friends. But I had found my home. There came a day when I stood on a golf course in Phoenix, leaning on my driver, when I quoted the words of Charlton Heston in "The Ten Commandments"; "I shall dwell here!"

I wish that I could explain how wonderful everything looked when I came home to Phoenix. Whether it was true or not, the people seemed to be more friendly, they seemed genuinely glad to see me. And all I needed was a job, and a gorgeous girlfriend, and my new life would be perfect. It was. I started working for Valley Bank.

People around every corner,
They seem to smile and say,
We don't care what your name is, boy,
We'll never turn you away.
So I'll continue to say.
Here I always will stay.

Thank you for the encouragement! If you want to see daily pics of my adventures on my recumbent trike in suburban Phoenix (just for fun, of course!) you can follow me on Buy me a coffee, and you can buy me a coffee if you'd like to:

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Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 2, 2022 at 12:56 PM

    does anyone remember Chaparral raceway (where you paid by the lap like Malibu grand prix) in Tempe, in about 1989 or so? If so what was the address and what happen to it?

    ReplyDelete

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