[cloudmountain]

My mother was from Phoenix, WAY back when there were only 10,000 people there and groups of Indians squatted in their cowboy boots on street corners smoking cigarettes.

She had all kinds of fruit trees in their yard...and a big rifle on a living room rack. Hottern Hades, almost zero humidity, with 1001 motels all around.

Screen doors and a cooler--no A.C. I sat in a big ole rocking chair smack in front of the cooler. My grandfather smoked cigarettes that he rolled himself from a tobacco pouch.

Camelback was a marker for me that I was almost there. Her house was torn down when Phoenix got so big. It would have been in the center of town now, but back then...

There were thunderstorms with no rain at all, just mud falling from the storms, with all the dust and wind.
We took the Greyhound bus there and back. Whew, was it hot and were those Greyhound bus stations dreadful.

[marktwain]

Now we have AC and snowbirds (winter visitors). There is still a lot of wild Arizona, but Phoenix is a huge metropolitan area...

Even Yuma seems to be getting rather crowded to me. Over 100,000 population now, and people are saying it is the next Phoenix...

[octex]

“My mother was from Phoenix,” ....and all else you wrote
***********************************
Very good posting of memories, CM! Prompted me to think of some of mine.

[Tainan]

I like the way you write your recollections.