Thinking of my friend Mick Welsh today


A good friend of mine recently passed away after battling cancer for some time. He and I met when we both worked at Glendale Community College about twenty years ago, and we both shared an interest in Phoenix history. I called what I did "history adventuring" and he called it "urban spelunking". And it's really the same thing - exploring stuff, especially old buildings in the Phoenix area.

Like me, Mick was a Photoshop guy, and he put together a tremendous digital collection of images of old-time Phoenix. But he was also analog, and liked to collect things, especially bricks and stuff like that from buildings that were being torn down. No, he didn't take a crowbar and wedge them off of buildings, he would ask politely if he saw a pile that was just going to be thrown away, and he would take something home. I used to wonder how his wife felt about his collection of old bricks and such, but I'm supposing that love conquers all, even dirty old bricks.

My collection of old Phoenix photos is all digital, and I have very few analog things, an exception being some bricks that were being thrown out at GCC a few years ago. There was a big pile of them over by the big dumpster in the parking lot, and I asked politely to the guys who were dumping wheelbarrows full of them if I could take one, which I did. There are no markings on it indicating its exactly age, but the original buildings were built in 1965, so that's my best guess. I keep it in my garage, and every time I look at it I think of Mick.

Thank you, Mick!





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