Dave Micetic

I think I have you two beat on the lack of popularity front. The boss says, no retirement for me yet. We'll see.

William Hunter

How great to hear from Phil and Dave!  Dave - I remember us making some occasional trouble and joking about at Mohave way back when.  Phil - we go way back, too.  Thanks very much for responding.  Maybe three of the least popular kids can get some momentum here!  

Doug Holland

Always good to read what everyone is up to and especially the kids from "the neighborhood"--- Mohave. Good to read the Phil, David and Bill are all well! I'm in Tucson, retired as a high school principal now building and flipping homes along with traveling. Janet and I have been married 33 years and she's heard me talk about how much I enjoyed Mohave and Saguaro, we grew up in a great time/place. Hope everyone is well! 

William Hunter

That's great to hear, Doug!  Congratulations on your retirement.  I've always thought that when a person is ready and able to retire, they've won the war of many battles.  I was looking at retiring in 2017 from Honeywell and just being done at that point, then the opportunity at Carlisle just fell my way.  Nearly seven years later, I'm still at it but having fun.  Soon, though.

I lived in Tucson for about 12 years - around 1985 through 1996.  Overton and LaCanada area.  For anyone who likes the outdoors, Tucson is a great place to be.

You are 100% right - we all grew up through great times at Mohave and Saguaro.  I'm sure we had classmates who had challenges we never saw that made life difficult, but the time and the way things were then was special.  Thinking through all the shenangians and pranks, one might wonder how we made it.  When looking with a modern lense, a person might really question us.  But I'll point out at that time, our cars owners manual may have described how to adjust the valves as a part of regular required maintenance; today, the manual tells us to not drink the contents of the car battery.

Traci Parish (DeBuhr)

Anita Trachtenberg (McClaskey)

Hi ya everyone! It's great to hear from you. I think we all had a great time at Mohave and then in HS. It was a much simpler time and a much better time and I'm glad we all went through it together. Happy Birthday in advance, Bill! love you all, my friends, my forever family. 

William Hunter

Yay!  Thank you, Anita, for the b-day wish.

And now look: 5 or 6 of us have checked in over just that past few days.  That's awesome and let's keep it going.  I just reached out to one person from our class that hasn't set up a profile in the site; let's do that and get more people involved.  It's great hearing from everyone.

Stacy Cooper (Bodie)

Cayce Evans (Newton)

I remember you Stacy!! You, me and Tracy McGinnis were a rhyming trio. 

Phil Suggs

Hi Ladies....   I do rememeber band and Mr Cooper..... Marched in the Parada Del Sol 2 years in a row. Hated the early morning practices. Lips were almost too cold to play the trumpete.....

Stacy if I remeber , you were in the woodwind section....

Mary Hall (Duffey)

Hello,

Mary (Hall) Duffey checking in. I've very much enjoyed the last reunion. It has been nice to reconnect with everyone. I'm still working myself and trying to do more traveling as well. We welcomed our first grandchild two weeks ago!

Stacy Cooper (Bodie)

Stacy Cooper (Bodie)

Traci Parish (DeBuhr)

William Hunter

This is amazing!  Stacy Cooper, Casey Evans, Doug Holland, Phil Suggs, Mary Hall, and more!  You are all famous in my book.  Let's keep it going.  I just reconnected with the first friend I made after moving to Scottsdale as a wee lad of 6 and went to Mohave and Saguaro with - Scott Fletcher.  Scott lived several houses away and was playing tetherball in his backyard.  The fence wasn't completed yet and I rode by on my bike.  I am sure in my arrogance I likely said something like 'I'm good at that' when we can all safely assume I'd never seen a tetherball.  That was a long dang time ago - probably 1968.

Larry Clauss

Hi all - Larry here (or as some old friends from Mohave know me, "Chip").  Great to see everyone chatting and hear all the old stories.  Lots of great memories for sure!   I remember all of you that have checked in!

Every five years or so I'll drive by the old house on Bonnie Rose, between 'Little' Pima and 86th street.  Things have certainly changed in the neighborhood, but the memories are still there.  I remember riding my bike everywhere, and many times to see friends.  Kids don't seem to ride bikes as much anymore.  I recall going over to Bill Hunter's place, and one time we were playing with fireworks!  Fun times hanging out at Shane Hamilton's, Lance Cope's, and many others all around the hood.

I guess it's because we're all getting older, but sure seemed like times were much more simple then and life was really good.  Sure, life is great now, but the joy and innocence we experienced back then seems a little foreign these days.  I try to relive it through the kids and grand kids whenever possible!

Thinking back to High School days is a real trip.  It was kind of a transition between being a kid, and becoming an adult.  We didn't really know what the future would hold, where we'd end up, or how our lives would unfold.  I don't think we really understood what 'wisdom' was back then, but it's a little more clear now!!

A question:  Anyone considering having a 45 year informal get together?  It would be fun to get together at a local watering hole and catch up.  Nothing too elaborate.

Mona Stacy

Where would be a good place to have a Happy Hour or gathering for the 45th?? 
Not doing the whole hotel thing...🤣
McCormick Railroad Park? Or something indoors? What month?

Theresa Salem (Thornburgh)

What a great thread! Thank you all for posting your memories. 

Stacy Cooper (Bodie)

Anita Volgyi (Grinis)

It's been fun reading these messages! I remember most of you from either Pueblo or high school. Reading about the old neighborhood (I lived on El Charro) brought back so many memories. My friends Shelly Loughran and Lori Capellucci and I use to walk to school and cut through the alleys of the townhomes. After schools we'd stop in the 7-11 on Granite Reef for Slurpees or candy. In the summer we'd hang out at John's pharmacy reading comic books and magazines. Such a simpler but great time. How's the neighborhood changed? My folks (now gone) moved to Sierra Vista in 1996 so I haven't been back in a long time. I just see on Zillow that the house on El Charro that they bought in 1972 for $33,000 sold for over $700,000. Wild. 

Larry Clauss

Hi Stacy - to answer your question, my folks house was at 8662 E Bonnie Rose, in the middle of the block on the north side.  I remember where Andy lived, in a two story house west of there, as I recall.  The house at 8662 was $12,000 new when my Dad bought it.  Amazing to think what they're worth now.  We were in a simple middle-class neighborhood back then. 

That house didn't even have air conditioning originally.  I remember when my Dad installed a swamp cooler and we thought we were high-tech!  Hard to believe people slept in their back yards in the summer, with damp sheets draped over them to stay cool, before swamp coolers and refrigeration were common!!

An odd thing that maybe others can relate to - I sometimes have dreams that I'm back in that house, but it's modern times.  I remember the interior exactly as it was.  Crazy how a person's mind drifts back to something from their childhood, in dreams.

William Hunter

Great messages!  Remeber all the houses - all were Hallmark Homes.  My parents bought on Orange Blossom with the plan to move to another area inside a year.  We stayed for a full month when we moved from Virginia while we searched for a house (Dec 1967).  I remember one was on Piestewa Peak and he mentions another one north of Camelback on the lower mountain - and he said the price was a few thousand more than he could bring his mind to.  Of course today he says 'dang! we blew that' given what houses sell for in those area today.  But no regrets; I'd have ended up at Arcadia HS or something and I wouldn't make the trade today.

Larry's comment about sleeping in the back from not having a/c orginally reminded me of one night where some real trouble happened.  Randy Day was staying over on a weekend night - this was Mohave days, so probably 7th or 8th grade (he moved from PA in our sixth grade).  We were going to sleep in sleeping bags in my backyard.  It was probably about 9pm when his 1-year-older Ronnie and their couson Willy (Allen; he was in our HS class) came over.  My parents were still up but the four of us just wnet walking.  We walked north in the alley behind the houses on the east side of 86th Place and turned right where that alley intersected with the one parallel to the homes along the south side of Sandalwood.  As we turned north on 'little Pima' (Larry - I forgot that term for that part of Pima after big Pima was built), one of the others said 'there's someone with a light out there in the alley behind us' but we thought nothing of it.

100% true: we were not up to any trouble - we had done nor were doign anything bad.  As we got close to the alley between Sandalwood and Vista, we decided to 'hide' from a car on little Pima.  We went into that alley and hid about in different spots about one house distance into the alley.  The car passed by and we were just starting to move and BANG. As it turned out, a  homeowner from that south side of Sandalwood  apparently had had some patio furniture stolen sometime before that and decided we must be responsible.  He must've heard us, got a gun, and followed us to the Vista alley.  He discharged his pistol into the alley; the bullet made a indentation in the alley surface about 8 feet from my hiding position - it was close to all four of us.

It was behind the house of I Mike Morgan (I think that's the right name; he was in Ronnie's HS class one year ahead of us), who's dad happened to be AZ DPS.  Mr Morgan had us all into their house and kept that person there until Scottsdale Police came.  I remember my dad walking in with Mr Day - there was a different combination of charaters - in a good way - and my dad was actually joking around.  I thought I was doomed at home but he wasn't upset with me.  The Day's were a hunting family, had many guns, and were very big on gun safety.  Mr Day was none too pleased with that neighbor.

That was something I'll never forget. 

William Hunter

Larry mentioned riding bikes everywhere.  I remember riding up to Basha's, 7-11, and Circle K all at the Granite Reef and McDonald intersection ALL the time, probably from 4th grade on, from our house on Orange Blossom.  And more than that, I remember once in grade school riding to the Phoenix Zoo with Scott Fletcher and one or two others.  The Zoo!  It was during a summer; we never thought to ask or say anything to a parent - we just went.   I also remember riding out to the ruins of Beeline Dragway, which was out near where Fountaon Hills is.  Again - we just went.  Never a thought of how far nor any worry of anything happening.

Can you imagine that today?  You're in your Mohave or Pueblo house, only now you're the parent - and what would you say to a grade school child saying "we want to ride our bikes to the Zoo!'  Nope!

Stacy Cooper (Bodie)

Dave Micetic

I remember the summer between sixth and seventh grade, Pete Wastak and I riding our bikes to the river, just below Saguaro Lake for an overnight campout. Can you imagine letting kids do that now? We rode on the edge of Pima, cement and dump trucks whizzzing by, up to Shea, Beeline to Bush Highway, and camped below the dam. The next day, south to McKellips, then to Hayden with a stop at Whataburger, then home.

Parents would be reported to CPS now.