hard to believe

I was talking to my Grandma today about Tucson.  Her parents lived here in the mid-60s to the mid-70s, which I greatly appreciate because it always makes me feel a little more at home here.  So we got to chatting, and started comparing her memory of Tucson with my current reality.

  WOW - was it crazy.  

My great-grandparents used to live out past A-Mountain, south of Gates Pass, just east of Golden Gate Mountain - if you know the Tucsons really well.  My grandma remembers tons of mountain goats on Golden Gate Mountain. She said they were everywhere. Of course, there were the usual coyotes, snakes, tarantulas, and scorpions as well.  She said there was the only mall in town on the east side of downtown. Gates Pass Road and Catalina Highway were dirt roads, and Gates Pass Road was only 1 lane!  She said it was the most terrifying thing to drive on those dirt roads as they were not well kept.  My Grandpa Jim would also take her to some festival where they would eat bear, snake, coyote, buffalo, etc.  She said maybe it's out on the Tohono O'otham reservation.  I wonder if it's still there...and he would drive around in the desert, just driving in his pick-up.  He would hang out with O'othams on the reservation (I have some of his carvings), and often go scavenging and find Native American pots, beads, and random things in the desert. I wish he was still here to take me!

My mom used to be on the National History Registry and my family has deep roots in South Bend, IN, so I have a deep nostalgic part of  me, and it was so sad to hear how things have changed from how they used to be.  Especially given the above picture. 

Can you guess what it is? Well friends, it's the Santa Cruz. Crazy huh???  The now crappy, cemented wash that we drive over on the west side of town once looked like that!!!!  This was the bridge at St. Mary's Rd in 1931.  While the sprinkle of rain today was nice, I wish we had the raging river instead :(  Thanks for letting me ramble about the Old Pueblo.