Vada's Family - Phoenix, Arizona

The last day of my trip I was able to meet almost all of Vada's family when we went over to her house for dinner.Here I am with my sisters, Vada and Gay.
This is Vada and her husband Al Roberts. Their beautiful house does have a grass front yard and a small grass yard in back but most of the ground is covered with stone. Water is a problem in Arizona.
This is Vada's daughter Tami with her husband Brian Green. Vada has another child, Al Jr., but they live outside Murietta, CA and were unable to be with us.
This is a family picture of the Green family. Across the back - Tami, Brian, Alysia, Karl, and in front, Eric.

This is Tami's younger son, Eric, with his wife Aimee. Yes, spelled just like our Aimee!
This is Karl Green (his wife is Janelle, but she wasn't able to come over.) His children are Keegan (Karl Jr.) and Jacie.
Since I had never met most of these great people this was a real treat for me. Tomorrow I fly home and it is back to the old grindstone.

Tucson Trip - Part 3 - South Lawn Cemetery, Tucson

Naturally a trip to this cemetery is a must if you go to Tucson. One of my concerns this trip was to do something about my brother, Jimmy's stone. The stone itself is in fine condition but the footing around the stone has broken and allowed grass to grow up around the stone. I put in a work order request to reset the stone and should hear back from them within the week after they get the work done.
For some reason it looked like Grandma and Grandpa Damron's stone has been worked on lately. The little plaque is for Bill Damron - one of Grandpa Damron's children who I think is now buried here too (probably cremated.)
This is the first time I have been back since the headstone on my parent's graves has been completed with the death date of Mother. Though I prefer the stone markers, this metal one seems to hold up better with time.

Tucson Trip - Part 2 - My Old House

I spent the first 10 years of my life in this house at 2021 E First Street in Tucson. It is located one block east of the University of Arizona campus. (Grandma Damron's house is now one block west of the same campus.) This house is now in the Historic Sam Hughes neighborhood and thus is in exceptional condition. It is painted a light pink, because of the watering restrictions it has cactus and rock now instead of grass but overall it is looking great. We didn't bother the occupants this trip. Grandpa Jim purchased this house in 1928 with funds he got when his Uncle Jim Givens died in LA and left him a lot. He took $3000 of that money and purchased this home which had been built for $5000 and also purchased 25 acres of farm land in Thatcher, AZ.


This is a back view from the alley that runs behind the homes. On the left is the garage and on the right is the side of the main house. Behind the house was a small yard enclosed in an adobe wall. It appears that they have added a large extension to the back of the original house that is inside the wall. Behind the wall was an open area where I liked to play in the dirt as a child.Sam Hughes School was my first school and hasn't changed much in the past 55 years since I first attended there. It too is adobe. The large building the the administrative building. I attended classes to the right of the large building. I was amazed that this school is still in use after all these years as my three sisters also attended here so this school must date from the 1920's

Tucson Trip - Part 1 - Grandma Damron's House

Grandma and Grandpa Damron (George Damron and Christa Lillis Wilkins Givens) lived at 632 N First Ave in Tucson from about the late 1920's until Grandma died in 1969. This is the front of the house today. The fence has been added since Grandma owned it.


This is Gay, Vada and me on the front porch of the house. We happened to run into one of the tennants and she was gracious enough to take us through the house and see it in its deteriorated but liveable condition. The grass that use to be in the font of the house has been replaced with stone.
The owners are considering tearing down the garage. It is in terrible condition. This is a great picture as it shows the adobe structure of the garage (the house and my own house) covered with a layer of plaster. Gosh - we used to think this was a large garage holding Grandma's pink and gray Chrysler and a washing machine.

How many states have you been to?

Laura got me into this on Facebook. Here are my results.
I've been to 40 states

My score is 40
Put an X by the States you have been to and then put that number in the title.

* Alabama X
* Alaska X
* Arizona X
* Arkansas
* California X
* Colorado X
* Connecticut X
* Delaware X
* Florida X
* Georgia X
* Hawaii
* Idaho X
* Illinois X
* Indiana X
* Iowa X
* Kansas ?
* Kentucky
* Louisiana X
* Maine X
* Maryland X
* Massachusetts X
* Michigan X
* Minnesota X
* Mississippi X
* Missouri X
* Montana X
* Nebraska ?
* Nevada X
* New Hampshire X
* New Jersey X
* New Mexico X
* New York X
* North Carolina X
* North Dakota
* Ohio X
* Oklahoma X
* Oregon X
* Pennsylvania X
* Rhode Island X
* South Carolina X
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas X
* Utah X
*Vermont
* Virginia X
* Washington X
* West Virginia
* Wisconsin X
* Wyoming X

Spring Training Day 2

Day two was a cool windy day. High was only about 74 or so. The sun was behind clouds and it was cool. Cool also explains some of the things I experienced today.
Right after I took the picture above, Steve Garvey signed my hat. Not often you get a Hall of Famer to sign your hat.
I really wasn't thinking when I took this picture. I could have had Joe Torre sign something but at least I got his picture.
And yes, today, was the first day of having Manny Ramirez back in camp. This was a close to him as I dared get. It was wild in close.
Where's Waldo - no - Where's Manny? This is as close as he got to the game ( top floor of the Dodger clubhouse. Nice little place isn't it. I also got a baseball thanks to the ball boy.

Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward

I copied this from Laura's blog...

Pay it FORWARD--How it works:

The FIRST THREE people to leave a comment on this post will receive at some point during this year a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive will be a total surprise--to both of us.

The CATCH is that YOU MUST PLAY TOO! Before you leave your comment here, write a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (you can cut and paste these instructions). Then come back and let me know that you are going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift. It's THAT easy!

Remember, only the FIRST THREE comments will qualify. Good luck!

Spring Has Sprung (A little out of order)

Here are some pictures from the yard the week before I left for Phoenix - showing that Spring has indeed arrived.
These first are daffodils in the front yard - one of the first things to bloom in the spring.

Then one of our tulip trees in the back yard. Their bloom is too short but it is spectacular.
Lastly, this is part of my newly remodeled flowerbed behind our bedroom. I got three camellia's for a steal - $6.95 each. They had beautiful blooms. I added a couple of color spots too.

Phoenix and Spring Training

Well I have made it to Spring Training after 50+ years. The flight out of Fresno was a breeze. It was scheduled to land at 3:06 PM and they opened the doors of the plane at 3:06. Vada and Al were in the terminal to meet me - which was good as they have totally remodeled the airport since I was there last and the terminal I was in wasn't even there when I was there last. They took me to Gay's so I could unpack and then we went out to dinner at Mimi's - sound like a Grandma Betty travel log?

On Tuesday we went to Costco and got Gay a new HD TV (32 in model that fits into her book cases just right. She loves it and if the Suns would win a game on it she would be happier.

Today I took a little walk. The temperature was just at 80 degrees so that is fine. I didn't realize the length of the trip I was taking but the "square" I planned to walk was about a four mile one. (One mile on each side.) Actually you can't do the whole square because a wash runs through a corner of it for flood control, so I estimated I walked a good 3 miles. Quite a little jaunt but fun.

I left at 11:20 for the ballpark down on Camelback Road. To get there you take the 101 freeway. Sound familiar? Well it is Arizona 101. Anyway it takes you right past the Arizona Cardinals stadium and the hockey arena, which is next door. The baseball complex is a whole two weeks old and barely built in time. They were really pushing it when they finally finished it. I took some great stills but they are on my camera (internal memory!) - I forgot to put the memory card in all the way and left the connection cord at home because "I never use it any more anyway!" Oh well - the game was long, long, long - 18 runs and 25+ hits, and who knows how many players.

I put a couple of videos in here. The one with the pitcher on the mound is the first pitch of the game. Kershaw was out starter - he stunk. The other video is a panoramic view of the stadium from behind home plate. I will put more on the web after tomorrow.




This is the only picture I had off my memory card after my internal memory maxed out. This is Dave Roberts (the ex-Dodger) the pitch before he drove in the winning runs with a double to the fence. Oh well, the BIG NEWS today was Manny signing with the Dodgers. It should be interesting tomorrow and I am sitting right behind the Dodger dugout instead of the visitor one. I hope to get some good shots. The guy in the gift shop said they had 350 Manny wigs (dreadlocks) scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I'll try to get some shots.