Our Phoenix Neighborhood
These are some of the memories I have of moving to Phoenix when I was five years old. We moved to 3022 E. Garfield Street in Phoenix, Arizona. Our phone number was Bridge 51293.
We had neighbors next door that had a daughter a little older than me and a son the same age of a little younger than Harold. These were the Hunicutt's. The day we were moving in the daughter came over to the fence where I was standing and said, Hello, I'm Carol Lela Hunicutt. I said hi, I'm Karen Lee Maxwell. I was five and she was six or seven. We both went into our homes and told our mother's: "Mom, the little girl next door is named Curly. I guess when you say Carol Lela or Karen Lee really fast it sounds like Curly.
We loved our neighborhood. It was a dead end street. At the end of the street there was a ditch bank we loved to play on with big cottonwood trees. Caterpillars were everywhere before they hatched into butterflies. One time the neighborhood gang made a fort in the ditch using old lumber and plywood. It was so cool. The next day we went back to see our fort and the ditch had filled with water and washed it away.
Friday night's we would go outside and play games. One of our favorites games was hide and go seek. I remember one time hiding with Allen Snyder, the boy I thought was so cute. It was totally innocent but we were hoping no one would find us.
Another favorite game was cops and robbers. Of course we played this one on our bikes. Sometimes Harold and I would play school. I was always the teacher. Poor Harold, I'm afraid he was a little hen pecked. He was a good sport about it though.
We lived next door to the Hunicutt's who had two children around our age and then an older son. Carol was a couple of years older than me. We played together when we were young but once we started school Carol was too much older than me for us to be close. The youngest son was Timothy. He introduced himself as Timothy Earl Hunicutt. Timothy adored Harold but Harold preferred to play with Tommy Furse who lived on the other side of the Hunicutt's. Timothy was a bit of a sissy and Harold and Tommy just didn't like him very well. They were never mean to him, they just mostly ignored him. One day Timothy knocked on the door and when Harold answered Timothy said: "Harold, why do you hate my guts?"
We lived next door to the Hunicutt's who had two children around our age and then an older son. Carol was a couple of years older than me. We played together when we were young but once we started school Carol was too much older than me for us to be close. The youngest son was Timothy. He introduced himself as Timothy Earl Hunicutt. Timothy adored Harold but Harold preferred to play with Tommy Furse who lived on the other side of the Hunicutt's. Timothy was a bit of a sissy and Harold and Tommy just didn't like him very well. They were never mean to him, they just mostly ignored him. One day Timothy knocked on the door and when Harold answered Timothy said: "Harold, why do you hate my guts?"
Church
We attended the Phoenix 7th ward in the East Phoenix Stake. Our building was on east Brill St. It was white with a red roof and the building surrounded an inner courtyard. My mother was a Primary teacher. She taught the Top Pilot class, or 8 year olds.
I remember being dropped off with the Snyder kids, Allen and DeEtte on Sunday mornings at the church. Sometimes our mom would talk us to sacrament meeting in the afternoons and rarely my dad would come too. After the meeting we would stop by the Dairy Queen on McDowell and get ice cream.
Here are some of the kids I remember being in my class. Anna Warner, and Carol Ann Passey. Carol Ann went to a different school but Anna went to our school. One time on Sunday our neighborhood got together and played a game of softball instead of going to church. Anna saw us and told everyone about it the next week in Primary. I was so embarrassed. Anna was also on my softball team that my parents coached. She played third base but she wasn't very good. I can still remember her trying to catch the ball with two hands and her lousy glove. Funny, what things you remember.
Collin DeWitt, who is a friend here in Vernon was in my ward as a child. I think he was a year younger. Jackie Nations was another boy in our ward. I had a crush on both of them. Jackie was one of the "cool kids." Collin had a grandmother who lived in Lakeside and he would visit her in the summer just like I visited my nannie and grandpa who lives in Lakeside. My mom showed me the big house she said belonged to Collin's grandmother. We drove past it on the way to Nannie's. I always wished I could see him when we drove by.
School
I went to Creighton School located on 28th St. and McDowell in Phoenix. I walked to school with Tommy Furse, a boy who lived a couple of houses down from us. He was my age and he was also my brother Harold's best friend. We lived on Garfield St. which is a block south of Roosevelt and would walk up 28th Street, which was a dead end, to school. It was a long walk for two little kids in the first grade. Tommy and I were both in Mrs. McGurr's class.
One day Tommy and I were walking home from school and we saw a huge black cloud behind us. We thought it was a tornado and we started running as fast as we could towards home. As we got closer to home we saw our mom's walking towards us. My mom was holding my little brother Dennis who was a baby. As we got closer we began telling our mom's about the tornado behind us. They waited for us to calm down and then they told us that the Farm Fresh grocery store next to the school, was on fire. Parents had been calling the school and everyone was in a panic. We were so glad it wasn't a tornado and were so glad to be home safely.
