It was 1972 when my family moved to Scottsdale. I was seven years old then when Mom enrolled my younger brother and me at Pueblo Elementary. Little did I know that enrollment would be one of a few more re-enrollments years to come at the very same school. See, Dad was a salesman, and that meant following the money trail and Scottsdale was where it lead us at the time (and time again). I made friends, just to leave them for what turned out to be half a school year away in another city. We always came back however, and my friendships often picked up where they had left off.
Our first residence in Scottsdale was in a townhome community on McDonald and Granite Reef. But it was the home on east Valley Vista Drive that I remember truly calling home. It’s amazing how a 1600 square foot Hallcraft home seemed spacious enough for a family of four back then, which could be considered a bit small by today’s home standards. My parents were self-employed and worked together in the real estate business. Home-based businesses weren’t quite commonplace yet. Our house had a carport, and we were one of the first in the neighborhood to convert it into livable space and call it an “office”.
The Scottsdale I grew up in during the ‘70s and ‘80s didn’t have a Nordstrom department store or Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. We had the outdoor Scottsdale Fashion Square with Goldwater’s, Los Arcos Mall with The Broadway and Sears, Pizza Den and Farrell’s Ice Cream. Chaparral Park and “The Sugar Shack” hosted Little League baseball and some of my softball games during the spring and summer. Sidewalk Surfer was the one stop shop for skate boards and roller skates. Big Surf, Roller World and Oceanside Ice Arena were the built-in babysitters for our parents, a place to expand our social circle and hold the hand of a boy or girl you had a crush on without the watchful eyes of your parents. The Kachina Theatre, and a trek to Cine Capri (for Star Wars without seatbelts!) was where you escaped to cool off during the hot summer months if you weren’t already splashing around in a friend’s pool and using baby oil or SPF 4.
I wonder if my classmates remember the time capsule we buried below the playground at Pueblo and Tex Earnhardt paying us a visit on his steer (no bull). Mr. Bloom was the coolest Principal. I graduated from being a Dust Devil in eighth grade to a Sabercat in ninth. Saguaro High School has long been expanded and updated, however the concrete stadium seating still holds tradition with the painted mascot and graduating year seen from Hayden road. A few painted “paw marks” on the street leading to the high school now leave no doubt you’re in Sabercat country.
“Growing up Scottsdale” looks a bit different these days but I will always cherish my middle class upbringing and childhood memories, which have kept me grounded even to this day. Now my own kids are “Growing up Chandler”. We have no plans to move, we have a wide variety of stores and restaurants to choose from, we wear SPF 30 and we buckle our seatbelts even for the shortest trek to a movie theatre!
