Trip down memory lane
On our drive home from Cave Creek I wanted to make a little side trip to the small Arizona town of Eagar where I had lived as a youth when my dad was stationed there in the Forest Service.
The first stop was the old homestead. Keep in mind that I left here when I was 11 which was 50 years ago. As a kid you remember things differently than maybe they actually were. It took me a couple drivebys before I realized this was our house.
When we left here in 1971 this house was a beautiful avocado green color, typical of the times. My dad built that carport this is attached to the left side of the house. Through the trees you can see a small structure. This is actually two side-by-side sheds. The shed on the right was located out in the pasture when we moved into the house. My dad and brothers moved it from the pasture to its current location by rolling it on large logs that were used as wheels. Yes, it's true and they all survived.
My dad had also hauled loads of lava cinders to fill the driveway and parking areas. I remember the house being set further back from the road. I used to play in the irrigation ditch that ran between the house and the road and I recall there being a slight hill up to the highway. In fact, I remember my mom trying to get up that hill on snowy days in the 1966 Buick LaSabre. It was definitely an incline so I think the road was widened or moved or something. If I'm wrong I'm sure my brother will set me straight.
This was my elementary school. My fifth grade class was in the classroom that jutted out on the left there. I attended this school for the second grade through half of the fifth grade. I have good memories of friends and living in this small community. When I left my classmates and teacher gave me a going away party. I cried for days when we moved to Albuquerque.
My old school is now the police department and city hall. It was a 1-8 grade school. I believe my brother attended a couple years in the back area of my school which is now part of the middle school.
This is the Mormon Church. A lot of community activities took place here. It still looks the same. This is a very Mormon community. I remember my classmates lining up one day each week after school to all walk over to primary together. I used to feel left out.
Across from the Mormon Church is my best friend, Patsy Walden's, house. They were a family of four girls, two boys and parents in this small house. All four girls shared one bedroom. I spent a lot of time there. Patsy and I visited each other for a couple years after I moved away, but then the friendship faded. Last I looked her up she was a colonel in the Air Force or something. I haven't been able to locate her since.
Down the block and across the street from Patsy's house used to be the community indoor swimming pool. I spent a lot of time at that pool too. Even as young as I was I was dropped off there and left with my friends all year round. In fact, I remember having the run of that town. We explored everywhere and were all over the place. Different times I guess, but I remember it fondly. The swimming pool is gone now, in fact there's no remnant of it ever being there.
We drove by Round Valley High School, home of the Elks. I don't remember the high school looking like this at all. I spent a lot of time here, baton twirling lessons, basketball, baseball, football games and track meets. That's what happens when you have two older brothers who play sports.
My brother broke his nose while playing baseball at Round Valley. I remember my mother being furious when she got the call to come pick up my brother after he broke his nose. Blood everywhere and his nose was obviously broken, why had they taken so long to call? We must have gone straight to the clinic after picking him up, but I don't recall that. My brother had to go to Phoenix to get it fixed. To this day he is the only person I've ever seen with a cast on his nose. I wonder if there's a picture of that anywhere.
My dad sawed his pinky finger lengthwise while we lived in Eagar. I remember it was night and he came in and said "I think I need to go to the hospital". There were blood drops on the floor. I remember visiting him through the window of his hospital room. I don't think they allowed kids to visit in those days.
Round Valley is the site of the nation's first indoor high school football stadium. Football was big in this town. On game days we would all line up after school and walk to the stadium. The dome wasn't built until after we moved away. There were times when my mom forgot to give me 25 cents for a ticket and on those days I had to wait at school for her to come pick me up and I couldn't go to the game. My mom drove me to and from school every day. We lived a little ways out of town and she was afraid I'd get smashed by the logging trucks that sped by.
As I mentioned this is a very Mormon community. Those of us in the minority got to learn about other religions because all the other churches worked together to provide activities for the non-Mormon kids. This is the Southern Baptist Church in the adjacent town of Springerville. I always got dropped off here for vacation bible school in the summer. One year I won $1 when I was the only person who had memorized John 3:16. That verse is with me to this day.
This is the same move theatre I went to when we lived here. The one movie I remember seeing here was True Grit. It remains my favorite movie of all time.
This is the Presbyterian Church that we were members of. I don't remember it looking anything like this so I think this is a new structure. I went to vacation bible school at our church too in addition to Sunday school and singing in the kids choir. Good memories!
This is the Catholic Church. This is not familiar to me at all, but it sure is beautiful.
Did my brothers do all this traveling around to different vacation bible schools? I doubt it, they were probably too old and way too cool.
There's a McDonalds in Springerville now, a new hotel in Eagar and a few more things than when we lived there. We grabbed lunch at Subway and headed to Albuquerque. It was nice taking a trip down memory lane, but I double I'll be back.
Have you visited anywhere from your past that you'd been away from for a long time?
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