History Adventuring

When I bought my house, thirty years ago, one of the first things that I did was to get an American flag to hang out front. I've never been particularly patriotic, and I'm not a veteran, but I like my country, and besides it just looked great above my very own garage door. I was living proof of the American dream. When people saw it waving it simply meant that - never a boast or brag, just red-white-and-blue. But this year, 2023, I'm not flying my flag on Memorial Day, and I'm inclined to think that a lot of people aren't, and for the same reason that I'm not. I can't speak for them, so I'll just tell you my reasons - I don't want to be confused with the people who have done everything that they could in the last few years to show disrespect for American democracy. And unless you've been living under a rock, you know what I mean. Of course, if you have been living under a rock, and are displaying the American flag for the same reasons that I used

If you lived in Phoenix in the 1970s or '80s, you know that the air is much, much, cleaner now. Of course, there were a lot of people who were around then who would disagree with me, and I think that I can explain. I grew up in the "Land of Sky Blue Waters" (Minnesota) and it's always been true - there are open plains there and whatever pollution is put into the sky just kinda blows away. The lakes are blue because the skies are blue. Incredibly blue, and incredibly clear. If you've been there, you know. And so while I was happy to leave the snow and cold behind when I moved to Phoenix in 1977, I really wasn't prepared for how dirty and dusty the air was. Of course, Phoenix is in a desert, and is also in a valley which traps the air. But I just focused on my studies at ASU (and the beautiful coeds!), and didn't pay much attention to it. I really didn't become a "fresh air fiend" until I moved to Los Angeles in 1983, where the air was so filth

Time-travel with me back to 1989, when I had just moved back to Phoenix from Los Angeles, and I had to adjust to a bit of culture shock, which included getting used to people having to pretend not to be gay. And if you're wondering, just because I'm talking about the subject, no, I'm not gay, I'm "grim", which is a term I learned in a humorous article I read when I lived California. I guess "grim" never really caught on, and I've never heard it since, but it definitely shows a different point of view. Yes, it's true there are a lot of homosexual people in California, and they're not just in San Francisco. LA had a lot, and I'd imagine still do, and when I lived there, in the 1980s, there was no need for a guessing game. Although the word "diversity" wasn't in common use, it was just part of the complex tapestry of life in Los Angeles. There were lots of different people, lots of different languages, lots of different cul

I've always had a fascination with the names of things, and especially with how they're pronounced. For me it started in California, where I had to learn how to mispronounce names of towns and streets in order to sound like a local. I had studied enough Spanish in high school to pronounce "Gutierrez" (a street in Santa Barbara) as Goo-Tee-AIR (with a bit of a roll to for the double rr) - ayes, and when the locals laughed at me I learned that the correct way to pronounce it was "Goo-TERR-ace." And from that point on I made it a point to learn how locals pronounce names, and it's mostly because if something gets repeated over and over it gets slurred. By favorite example in Arizona is Prescott, pronounced "Press-kitt". And there really is no deeper meaning that just slurring, the way that the word "Waistcoat" is pronounced "Weskitt" in England. The list goes on and on, and I'm sure that you can think of more. I had a good

You really don't hear the word "scrounge" much nowadays, and I'm only familiar with it because of old books that I read, and one of the characters in a movie that I saw as a kid, who was called "the scrounger". Hang on, I'll go Google a definition for scrounge. Here ya go: "to search about and turn up something needed from whatever source is available." That sounds about right to me. And like everything else that people do, and have always done, it varies by individual. It can be a thrifty person like me who wanders around in his garage, looking for something to use for something I'm working on, all of the way to a person who considers anything that isn't nailed down, or guarded, or locked up well enough, to be worthy of taking. I've had a couple of bicycles scrounged from me in the course of a long life, and apparently they were taken from me because I was careless enough to not use a strong enough lock. It's all a question of

Chances are that you're not a transient person, I'm definitely not one. I really have never moved around all that much, I'm just like my grandma, who described herself as "homely". I like being safe at home, and yes, my grandma had a silly sense of humor, which I inherited. The word "transient" is often used when referring to people who have set up "homeless camps", but that's not really accurate. Once someone has settled down into one spot, whether in a mansion, or in a tent, they're no longer transient - they're homely. Transients are always on the move! When I was a kid I fantasized about being a travelin' man, maybe going from town to town, carrying nothing but my guitar, but the reality of it never appealed to me. I like my comforts, I like my own bed. I wouldn't have made much of an International Man of Mystery, as I never slept well in hotel rooms, and different food than I was used to would give me an upset stomach,

If you're old enough to remember the song "The girl from Ipanema", and thought nothing of it being a description of a full-grown woman (probably in her twenties) that the singer is having romantic thoughts about, you can remember a time before the word "girl" was cancelled. But it came back just a few years later. Yes, "cancel culture" is really nothing new. And it means that something that everyone thought was perfectly acceptable one moment is considered wildly offensive the next. And a lot of older people really can't keep up with it, and it can be frustrating. I'll see if I can explain what happened to the word "girl". The 1970s brought a lot of changes that kinda started in the 1960s. Equal rights were moving from just a brand new idea in the law to changing attitudes by ordinary people. The Women's Liberation Movement (usually just called "Women's Lib") was fighting hard to give equal opportunity to women in ma

As someone who has always had a reverence for the game of games, and who takes off his hat when he gazes towards St. Andrews, in Scotland, it's hard for me to imagine people who don't like to play golf. And since I just learned the term "cow pasture pool", which is its description from the point of view of people who think golf is just a silly waste of time, I thought that I'd try to look at things from a different perspective, going along with someone who is trying to convince me to play golf. Here I go. It's 1915, and there are a LOT of cow pastures around Phoenix. And I wasn't born yesterday, I know that you really shouldn't walk around a cow pasture - not because I'm afraid of cows, but I'm afraid of what I might step in. But over there is a group of people who appear to be walking through a cow pasture. There are no cows, luckily, and they seem to be swinging some sticks, hitting a tiny ball. Through the fence, between the curling flower s

My first introduction to "end of the world people" was reading a James Thurber story when I was a teenager. I liked his sense of humor, which was an indulgent view of a world that he really didn't understand. If you haven't read the story, it's memories of his childhood including the "Get Ready Man", who went around town shouting, "Get ready!" Of course it was about the end of the world, or the end times, and it seems like people have been getting ready for as long as there have been people. I'm an old marketing guy, and I know that there's a lot of money to be made off of people who are getting ready for the end times. To me, it's just scamming people, but that's just me - I don't believe that we need to get ready, or that we're on the eve of destruction. If I did feel that way, I might consider what I would do to be helpful, but I don't, so I don't. Like Thurber, I've always turned an indulgent eye towards

Every once in a while nowadays I hear someone described as being "on the wrong side of history". And it just means that as things played out historically their point of view lost. But there really isn't a "wrong side", there are just winners and losers, and we've all been winners and losers. Admit it, you voted for someone who didn't get elected. Maybe you drove around with a "Dewey" sticker on your car (and just how old are you?). Truman may have won in a landslide, but it isn't as if everyone voted for him. If you're optimistic about the history of the human race, like I am, you've obviously found yourself on the right side of history quite often. I could go on and on with a list of things that I'm happy that humans have done, including inventing seat belts, but I'm inclined to think that there are a lot of people who would vehemently disagree with me. To me, they're on the wrong side of history, and to themselves hist

If you're an old history buff, like me, you know that there's really nothing new under the sun. Nowadays I'm reading a lot about election deniers, and it got me to thinking about a similar situation in Phoenix in 1917. A peaceful transition of power of an elected official after an election is something that I've always taken for granted, but it can't be easy. And it can't be pleasant for the person who has lost, and needs to vacate the office, but that's just the way that democracy works. When you're voted out, you gather up your stuff, and leave with dignity. Let's time-travel back to January of 1917 in Phoenix, Arizona, after Tom Campbell won the election to be the new governor, and replace George W. P. Hunt. But Hunt didn't want to leave. And here ya go, from the newspaper article on January 2nd: "Within the doors of the office he should have left yesterday morning, were fifty men, national guardsmen on furlough, and civilians, armed with