Out Arizona Way

[nachoman]

It’s been over a year, since I posted anything here. I still have a lot of old “Out Arizona Way” articles that I could dress up a bit and post, but the past few years haven’t been ones that allowed me many choices. I like to write, probably as much as I like to build things in my workshop or on my layout, so it was a tossup between one or the other since most of my time was dedicated to taking care of my wife. She’s been gone a year and I’m still trying to get use to that. But I do have a lot of free time now, and I need to take advantage of it, so maybe a few completely new articles here would be the right thing to do now.

Shopping around

Twenty years ago, the northwest side of our area was pretty much undeveloped. Lots of older farms, Luke AFB was way out in the sticks and nearby freeways weren’t even on the drawing board. Many roads were non-existent or dirt and I can remember when Bell Rd. went clear across the valley and stopped at US60 (Grand Ave.). Bell Rd. opened up when Sun City ran out of space and they started building Sun City West, then Sun City Grand and now Sun City Festival is way out in the desert, but not for long. Other developers followed and soon Surprise grew from a town of a few thousand to a city of over 100,000. Both these roads are now three lanes in each direction and Luke AFB is just minutes away.

We have all the usual chain stores and restaurants here, we are even blessed with three full-size Walmarts and one small one, each one just a few miles from my house. All of them are pretty busy normally, but now that the snowbirds are back, wow.... They built a Costco on what was a farm close by, now there are stores and fast food places being built all around it. They’re in a area about a mile wide and ten miles long that was all farmland that gave a rural feeling to the area, but it's all being built out, huge warehouses, big box stores, auto malls and housing. There was always lots of corn growing every year, carrots, strawberries, melons, flowers and a few things I had no clue as to what they were, but there was enough growing there to feed a lot of folks, now it's destine to be concrete and blacktop. They’re wondering why it’s getting warmer each year; me, I’m just wondering where all that food will come from now?

Being in what was the Wild West, it used to be easy to find western wear just about anywhere. Another thing that was easy to find was Native American jewelry. We could go to any mall or local western store and find what you need; some stores sold both. Now, you can't even find the malls, they're just history, making way for businesses and living space and most likely, a couple of Starbucks. As for western stuff now, there’s a place up in Wickenburg and one or two around Scottsdale and Carefree where all the tourists go.

That's just my story for this day, I guess I miss the old days, even twenty years ago would be fine, but we can't turn the clock back so I just go with the flow.

Right now they are demolishing the mall that I was at at least once a week through my teens and early 20s.  It will be replaced with condos, self storage, a grocery store, and a little bit of retail.  The mall was half vacant for the last 5 years anyway, so I guess it was time to go.  On one hand I find it sad that this mall is going, but in reality the "mall culture" I grew up with is dead.  I remember reading something like 75% of the malls that were around in 2000 will be gone by 2025.  If it is not a nationwide big box store, people don't go there.  "Niche" stores like hobby shops are almost gone.  "Going shopping" is not how people want to spend a Saturday afternoon.  I'm not sure how people get a chance to be around other people anymore.