Then and Now

Today, I will talk about the fact that you can go home. I live a fair amount of my childhood in the state of Arizona. Don't get me wrong, we moved around a lot and with my stepdad being in the Air Force, I also lived in Germany for 6 years and Montana for 4 years. Outside of that, from when I was born till I was 18, I lived the rest of the time in Arizona.

I love Arizona, I can never get enough of it. It was the toughest decision of my life when I decided to take the job at Decipher in Virginia. It was a much easier decision to come back 2 years later.

One of the big things that I like about Arizona is the constant development. The Valley of the Sun has been growing and pushing the limits of the valley ever since I can remember. Today I went for a drive and remembered some of the good memories from my childhood (yes, that was intentional, there weren't a lot of them).

- First up for Then and Now, the corner of Queen Creek and Power Road.

I remember that there was practically nothing between Williams Air Force Base and my Grandmother's house on Power and Riggs. Just orange groves, alfalfa fields, and cotton fields as far as the eyes could see.

Today:
There is a huge shopping complex that includes a Bashas, among other stores. I could get behing Trilogy and Power Ranch, that was closer to the base, but this is out in Chandler Heights. Where the poverty once roamed free.

Oh well, I moved on. Continuing down Power Road.


Then:
My grandma's house was the biggest on Power Road between Chandler Heights and Hunt Hwy in the 80s. They had about 5-6 acres of land. On this land, they had the main house, grandad Jack's toolshed, the bird averies, the farm setup with the goats and pigs, and some orange trees. What made this land was the huge eucalyptus trees that were out front. I remember those vividly.

Now:

Well, she sold it around when I was 11 or 12. She moved out to Hunt Hwy and Sossaman. I had a handful of great memories in this house. I remember watching the Dukes of Hazzard every day in this house. The tire swing on the tree is gone. It's a used car dealership and a house now. Most of the acreage has trailers on it and the averies are gone. Thank goodness the trees are still out front.

Then: One of my grandparents good friends was Henry. He lived on Lime and Hunt Hwy. This about 2-3 miles down the road and turn left on Hunt Hwy. He used have like 20-25 acres of Orange groves. He had a contract with sunkist and did pretty well with it. I used to work there when I was like 7 years old. I would go out to the orange groves and make sure all the new green branches that were growing out of the base were cut off and removed all the cicada shells from the tree trunks. He kept up the irrigation ditches with his tractor while I did this.

Now: Well the house is still there, but the orange grove is pretty much gone. There are random small houses throughout where the orange grove used to be. The house does still have the twin towers trees. You could see these trees from well up Power Road. It's what I used to gauge how close we were to his house. I don't remember it, but my grandparents told me that one day I just walked from the house on Power Road to Henry's house because I wanted to get some honey from him (he always had fresh honey). This was about a 2-3 mile walk when I was like 5 years old. It's a good thing I had my best friend in the whole wide world with me at the time...Dog Dog. I loved that dog, we were inseperable.

Then: My grandparents "new" house. They traded the old place for this new place straight up when I was about 11 or 12. This new place was on an acre of land and it just had the house on it. There was only two other houses nearby, right next to this house and then in the back on the left. The land was not tilled and there was no front yard. They had a small chicken coup and a couple orange trees in the very front of the plot of land. The road kind of went up the middle and they started some follage on the back left.

Now: Whoever the new owners are have really cleaned up the place. There are some horse stables and there is grass throughout the entire front yard. The driveway goes up the right side and they built a garage on the left hand side where there once just stood a pile of adobe bricks and an old stove. This house was pretty nice house, but I didn't have a lot of good memories in this house (problems as a child, seeing my grandmother very sick and near death, etc). I do remember Jebediah though. He was my friend when I lived here for a semester when I was in the 6th grade. He had a dirt bike. There are houses that have sprouted up all around this house now. Most of them have some horses on the acreage. On the opposite side of the road it just used to be desert and it's pinal county. Now they are putting in a new development.

So in closing, I love Arizona. I love the idea of Arizona. I just wish I could remember more of the good times from my childhood. I haven't gone to Queen Creek to see my uncle yet, I'm afraid of what I might say or do to him.