Desert cowgirls

February 1970

Richard recalls:  Rodeo was a week long celebration in February and continues to this day.  This big event was a parade, all with horse and horse drawn vehicles.  It was a time to wear cowboy clothes and visitors came to town.  Grandma and Grandpa Granum wintered for a month or two in Arizona at this time.  One year in a one room garden apartment in El Canto near El Con mall, the one and only mall in Tuscon at the time.  

Jacome's and Steinfelds are long gone and that mall itself is not much more than a strip mall compared to the newer ones.  This past winter (October 2011-April 2012) I was fortunate enough to attend an Arizona Centennial concert by the Chandler Symphony.  Two of the performers were guitar, vocal and dance duet.  The great grandson of Senor Jacome, founder of the store, who immigrated to the Arizona territory from Sonora Mexico.  

Audrey's notes indicate that both these photos were taken around the same time.  

Who knew that Martha in her cowgirl attire would end up one day attending the University of Wyoming, home of the Cowboys!  :)

Jacomes is indeed no longer in business but remains alive in Tuscon history.  The Jacome Plaza marks the location of the store from the 1950s-1980s.  The store itself was in operation from 1896-1980 and is recognized as being a successful store that was family owned for more than three generations.  That's something you just don't see these days.  

Dorm Life

Richard recalls:  Dorm life was crowded but fun.  I do not recall where we got the small table and two chairs, probably at a yard sale and not together but they became a set.  (Editor notes:  nope, other photos support this set was a gift at Christmas, as photos show the girls opening the set and then waiting patiently while Obie Nygaard helped assemble it, at the Menomonee Falls house.  Laura adds that she still has this set at her house in Michigan).

 Richard continues:  The girls bedroom had two Army style bunk beds, dorm furniture and a door that led out to the reception desk.  The desk was staffed by volunteers in the evening and visiting girls were not allowed in the boys room.  (editors note:  we were living in Apache Hall, an all boys dormitory).  But persons on desk duty would often play with Laura and Martha.  I see the date, October 1969, which means we had been in the dorm about 2 months.  Dickie Johnson was one of your favorite resident playmates.   He had not yet succumbed to drugs.

Paper and coloring materials were always available.  Maybe this is where scrapbooking got its start?  (Editor concurs, especially noting the care that Audrey took to write on the back of the photos she sent to her mom, Grandma B.).

Audrey noted on the back of this photo:  this is the doll house that Martha has had so much fun with.
Richard adds:  the Fisher Price house was either brought along or acquired in Arizona and is still in the basement in Holmen.  Other Fisher price toys included the school, air plane and ferris wheel.  And of course there was Mrs. Beasley.  Notice the pajama bag pillow in the background?  It was likely made by either Audrey or Grandma B.  The basket was used as a toy box at times and a clothes basket at other times.  It may still be in the basement.   Wicker parties were the rage and Audrey bought this at one one of these events.

The green cabinet came from Wisconsin too and I do not recall its history but was made by a family member.  I do not recall.  I am sure it made it to Georgia, but there the trail ends.

Laura recalled that the cabinet was indeed made by Uncle Eddie.  Great Uncle Ed Reuter, married to Irene Reuter (cousin of Grandma B.).  Laura also added that the cabinet went through a couple coats of paint through the years and was well loved and enjoyed until Irene R. requested it back.  The reasons of the request are forgotten but it should be noted that one didn't really question requests made from Irene.

This photo is from March 1970.

Audrey noted on the back:  My 2 little helpers.  They get them done.  Not always the cleanest but we don't worry.  

The details on dorm life:  as noted earlier, our first housing in Arizona was at Apache Hall.  It was built in 1957 and was partially refurbished in the 1990s.  It currently is equipped to house 350 residents. This photo is courtesy of University of Arizona's website.   

Richard noted:  On a visit to Tuscon this winter (October 2011-April 2012), I drove by Apache Hall.  The apartment, back door and reserved parking are still there but otherwise it is practically unrecognizable.  The stadium has been built up and closer.  There is a new 5 story addition that wraps the old part and there is a security system on the door and a fence/security station that serves Apache and Santa Cruz dormitories.  It is sort of sad to see the green space gone.  

Snow sculptures and road runners

A hodge-podge of photos and recollections from our days in Tuscon.

Richard writes:  Yes, it is snow on the Mall at the University of Arizona.  I do not recall the season but the local ice company made a truck load of snow (shaved ice) and student activities (with leadership from the student union) had a snow ball throwing event and sculpted their version of a snow man.  

Audrey noted on the back of the photo:  Yes, Grandma it does snow in Tuscon.  this was taken on September 20, 1969.

Richard continues to write:  And yes, your father is quite a fashion figure also with short pants, short sleeved shirt and black socks and oxford shoes.  White socks and tennis shoes had not made it into my wardrobe at this stage of my life.  I also had blue and white saddle shoes with platform heals and red, white and blue seersucker slacks!

Richard writes:  Yes, this is me.  I didn't have much hair then either, and I was a lot younger, 38 years old, and my weight was probably around 165.  The road runner on the white paint brick wall and fire place screen suggest this was taken in the house on First Avenue, near Tuscon Blvd.  I do not recognize any other artifacts on the table or mantle.

The Road runner is an original oil painted by Zivic and is currently on the wall in my living room (in Holmen, WI).  I think we paid about $25 for it then, which would be $350 now.  Purchase was made in his gallery in Trail Dust Town in Tuscon.  

Laura added:  this photo is so interesting in noting that aside from a little extra weight, Dad really hasn't changed much in 40 years.  

Martha notes:  the road runner painting  has always held a place of honor in any of the homes we lived in. I never knew who had painted it, so thank you Dad for sharing a bit of the history.  But you know me and my love of Google, I had to go digging for a little more information about the artist.

William T. Zivic (1930-) was born in Ironwood Michigan   He spent his early years working in the  iron mines of his native state and later started to travel the world.  In 1960, he brought his family west and was inspired by the beauty and history of this area, began to capture it through his work in both canvas and bronze sculptures.  He is a self taught artist who had his own studio in the Tuscon area for over 45 years.  He and his wife have since retired to the Casa Grande community of Arizona and his work is still available for purchase through their online gallery and at a consignment store in Casa Grande.  It is unclear how much his work would fetch at auction, but current art pieces range in the $75-100 range.

Road Trips: Vegas

This will be the first of what will become a series of entries featuring family travel memories..  Without a doubt both Richard and Audrey enjoyed traveling and given the era, most adventures were done by driving.  

Richard writes:         Well I do not know but we (Audrey, Laura, and Martha, and my shadow taking the picture with our Chevrolet  purchased about 1970 in front of a motel, in the morning and I would guess it was in Las Vegas. 

We went there about every three month when living in Tucson.  It was a day’s drive; we didn’t gamble but enjoyed the free entertainment in casino lounges.  I remember shows at Circus Circus, seeing the Ink Spots, and other entertainers that probably never made a name for themselves.  We would go to the buffet for breakfast; I think it was $.99 then.   

There was usually a line and it moved quite fast but snaked thru the rows of slot machines.  One day we were chastised because I gave Laura a dime to drop in a slot machine and pull the lever.  Yes, in those days slots were mechanical (not digital or electronic) and you activated the spinning wheels with oranges, plums, bars, and cherries, and if you got a cherry you got one coin back, and of course three bars was a jack pot.  Well security saw us and came and wagged a finger.  I could not give Martha a chance to play.  

This may have been the motel where Aurdrey lost her girdle.  But that would have been on a previous trip in 1967.  We stopped in Vegas on our way to Los Angeles for Martin and Patty Volla’s wedding.  Audrey forgot her girdle on the back of the bathroom door and did not miss it until she was in LA dressing for the wedding.   In those days a lady could not feel dressed without a foundation garment.  Fortunately we had enough time to get to Robinson’s Department store and purchase a replacement and still make it to the wedding on time.  That was the summers the chicken pox was going around.  Laura was thru but Martha still had evidence but went to the wedding and Disneyland, blotches and all.

As the years pass, some of the details get a little fuzzy.   This particular photo was reclaimed from a collection held by Grandma Irene (Big Grandma, the girls' maternal grandma).  Audrey would routinely send photos to her mother and was great about noting a little detail about the photo.  (Editor's note:  See?  Audrey was a scrapbooker ahead of her time!).    

Anyways, this photo (with marking on the side indicating it was printed in February of 1971), "this is our new car.  The stuffed animals Laura and Martha are holding are their souvenirs from the zoo". 

Stay tuned for more stories from the road. Enjoy!

A place to call home: Arizona edition

Richard writes:
 This was our house in Tucson, from June 1971 to July 1972. It was a two bedroom, one bath, double brick construction with a swamp cooler (evaporation). The area is a historic preservation district. It was about 6 blocks from campus and I could walk or ride a bicycle and avoid parking problems.

My recollections of the house include a pass through from the kitchen to the covered patio on the back (north side) which provided a nice outdoor living area. The living room carpet was stained and no matter how many times we steam cleaned it; the stains reappeared when it dried.

I do not remember the cost but it was affordable on my GI benefits and assistant ship. We furnished it with a few piece from auctions and yard sales, items we brought along in a U Haul trailer. I recall a modern green and metal sofa that was made of molded Styrofoam and light as a feather, but not to uncomfortable for short periods. We also had our Magnavox stereo radio record player and a rocking chair, the one Laura (?) has now. Oh yes, and see the big wheel in the front yard. Made lots of noise on the concrete sidewalk

There was a mother in law apartment in what had been the garage where the mother of the owner lived and entered off the alley. There was an interesting lamp post by the garden (back) gate.

The Waller’s. Gordon, Joyce, Craig, and Cindy lived next door. Gordon was an acquaintance from Galesville and River Falls State University, worked at the University of Arizona and the US Department of Agriculture as a bee expert.

Their house was considered Arizona Territorial in design and both houses exist pretty much the same today. The Waller’s house was also occupied by Bosco the dog and Miss Kitty who was Siamese. Laura and Cindy were played together and so did Martha and Craig. They were good neighbors and were responsible for our renting the house.

 Snow was not an expected weather pattern, note the plastic bags Laura and Martha are sporting as snow boots.  

And today...2415 East 1st Street, Tuscon Arizona looks something like this...

Records note that this house is a 1150 square foot single family home with one bathroom.  While it is currently not available for sale or rent, estimates of its' value are that it would sell for $182,000 and a rent would run around $1079.  It last sold in 1998 for $143,000 and was built in 1928.  Schools in the area include Hughes Elementary, Mansfield Middle School and Edge High school.  The subdivision is referred to as Speedway Heights.  

Flashbacks in Fashion

 Take one Grandma who enjoyed knitting, add in a mother who knew her way around a sewing machine and two darling girls who enjoyed being girly-girls, and you've got the makings of some pretty impressive retro looks.  Here is just a sampling of some of the lovely outfits I have found in those boxes of pictures

Richard writes:  Laura and Martha modeling clothes crocheted by Big Grandma.  The runway was our house (a rental) on First Avenue in Tuscon.  We lived in this house from June 1971 to July 1972 when I completed my doctorate in Education and we moved to Athens Georgia.  These outfits are still in the box on the shelf in the front hall closet in Holmen.    

Richard writes:  Each summer we made a visit from Tuscon to Wisconsin to visit grandparents and other family and friends.  The girls look a bit older in their dresses, which were more than likely made by Big Grandma (Irene) but they also could have been made by Audrey.   The sewing machine was one of the luxuries we took with to Arizona, not the desk but the portable machine that fit into the desk.  Audrey made many of your clothes and enjoyed sewing.    

The photo was taken at the house of Big Grandma (Irene) and I recognize the tuberous begonia in from of the basement window and between the sidewalk leading to the front door.  This was on the street (north) side of the house.  The soil was so sandy and poor but Grandma always got things to grow.  

Taken in Menomonee Falls.  Looks like Easter (with the lamb cake in the background being a clue in helping date this photo).  Unsure who made the outfits, but am pretty sure that they were made not bought.

 The knit wear continued to arrive even after we moved to Georgia (in the 1970s)

The girls are now modeling their Christmas outfits with Clyde Road in Athens Georgia now serving as their catwalk.

Arizona and the 60s

Richard writes:  You asked how we decided to move to Tucson.  The short answer is to attend graduate school at the University of Arizona.   The long answer is because ofUS involvement in the Viet Nam War.  I was on active duty with the Army from 1956-1958 and had one year of the GI Bill left after completing my Masters degree in counseling at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1959.  A student who graduated  from Hamilton High School, Sussex, WI, in 1954, Michael Wilson, was sent home in a body bag, probably in 1965. This was a deeply moving experience for me.  I began studying our involvement, what national interest was being served, and the more I learned the more convinced that we should end our involvement and how difficult it is to retract an action once begun.  I decided the only thing I could do personally was to quit paying taxes to support the war.  The socially acceptable way of doing that was to quit having income, and graduate school was a way to have no (or less) taxable income.  I looked at programs that fit my interest which also included experiencing a cultural setting different than Wisconsin, and the usual upper Midwest.  Audrey and I both agreed that we did not want our children to grow up in the ethnocentric communities we did such as Holmen or Freemont, predominantly one ethnic group, one set of occupational opportunities, and one political point of view.  Schools that I considered include the University of Colorado at Boulder, Florida State U at Tallahassee,  and the U of Arizona, Tucson.  By the summer of 1967 I was prepared enough to try a summer school in Tucson to see if we could tolerate the heat.  We used Terry Rolfs apartment on Campbell Ave and a lot of time was spent at the pool in married student housing.   I made application and on a bitterly cold snowy day in February 1969 received a call from U of AZ that I had been accepted and awarded an assistantship.   The assistantship consisted of supervising a residence hall (living in with free housing and utilities and resident tuition).  They said “I suppose you want some time to think it over.”   My reply was ‘yes, about 30 seconds, I’ll be there.’

During my stay in Arizona, GI Bill benefits went from two years to four years, so I had a stipend from the Government, and upon arriving on campus, I was invited to teach the foundation of guidance class, which added cash to the assistantship and reduced the credit load which I was allowed to carry.  So an expected one year of on campus grew to three years.  Both Audrey and I enjoyed our time in Tucson.  We explored the southwest, enjoyed the college life on campus, made use of recreation facilities, collected Indian jewelry, rugs, baskets, and pottery.  And the girls had good school experiences.  Audrey worked intermittently, and you girls were protected by 250 big brothers.  You went on dates with some to the student union for ice cream cones.  Audrey baked a birthday cake for every student who had a birthday during the school year.  This was the era of growing campus protests over our government’s involvement in the Viet Nam war.  Yes, I was expected to be alert to the safety of student, and was out and about when tear gas was used to break up demonstrations.  We never felt at risk, and it was all sort of a game of cops and robbers with helicopters and search lights overhead.

Getting Started

They say everyone has a story to tell.  For several years now, I have shared the stories of my family on our family blog.  It's been a wonderful experience to have a place to document the big, the little and the something in between events of our life.

But, what about the stories of before I became a wife and a mother.  Are those stories worth remembering?  I think so.  

So this summer I have set out to put some order to the chaos of those childhood memories.  In my closet has sat a box (ok, 3 boxes, maybe more) of assorted pictures.  There is no organization to the items that have been tossed in there.  Some of the items are from my parents, before they became parents.  Other items are of my childhood.  And a few scattered items are from my single days before I married.

What to do, what to do?  

First order of business  has been to scan the pictures.  

Now approaching close to 500 pictures, what should I do with all these items?

After tossing around a couple options, I'm going to stick with what I know best...a blog format. 

I've asked my dad, Richard, to share some of his memories of the pictures I have scanned.  Many of the stories included in this blog will be his voice.  I will also be asking my sister, Laura to share some of her stories as well.   

Once completed, whenever that might be, I plan to have this blog printed.  Maybe nobody will care about the stories in the years to come.  But, I will enjoy the process of traveling down memory lane...remembering when.