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A Catalina Journal
A Full Life in a Small Place.
Or...more
accurately,
Life here in Catalina, Arizona
(posted with latest first)
Checkin' in...changes coming
One of the advantages to being a "webmaster (webmistress?)" is the ability to see which of the site's pages
are being most visited and what search criteria folks are using to find the site. I was really surprised to see that
this page is up there in the top 5! So somebody out there is enjoying my ramblings and I've been pretty lax about
sitting at the computer and adding anything new for a while.
It's winter in Arizona, and to a born-and-raised
New Englander this is heaven! Even after 20 years here, the warm weather knocks the stuffin' out of me. So
most of my spare time from November through April is spent roaming the desert with my pup, Kaia, at my side...or a few feet
in front of me "marking" the way just in case we get turned around on the way back... or literally blocking my way
into an area she thinks is unsafe. She's the best!
Yet I do have a couple of things...additions to the
website...to talk about here. First, I've added a "Sign My Guestbook" on the Contact page at the suggestion
of a couple of readers who emailed that they'd like the opportunity to make comments that could be read publicly.
I think it's a great idea and welcome anyone to post there. I'll leave the "View My Guestbook"
option up until someone decides to use it as a "rant" page (I'd prefer you use Craigslist for all that) or uses
it inappropriately.
Second, is a Catalina history. Now I'm not talking about the ancient history of the
area that's been researched and written by people far more qualified than I'll ever be. I'm talking about
the history of the original settlement of Catalina that began with EB Garner in the early 1950's about which few living
here now are aware. I've been interviewing Mr. Garner's grandaughter who now lives out of state and she is sending
me a number of photos of that time. Also, a regular patron of Claire's Cafe, (thanks so much, Gary), took the
time to scan the pages of a little-known Catalina history done back in 1994 that included interviews with many of the folks
who were instrumental in creating our community.
Over the next few weeks I'll be building a subsite of
Our Catalina that will be dedicated to our history and will post excerpts from the '94 history project along with all
the new information I'm now getting.
I'd also like to put out the "call" to anyone who has a
story to tell or photos to share of the early days of Catalina. My intention is to get it all archived digitally and
eventually donate the material as a "Catalina community collection" to the Arizona Historical Society. So
please check you own personal "archives" for anything pertinent to our history, and talk to anyone you know who
might have something to contribute to this project. Contact information, including voicemail, is on the Contact page.
But now it's time to put on the trusty hiking boots and hit the trail. There's another kind of "gold"
in those hills.....
"The Trail Not Taken...
and What You Find Down
the Trail You Take"
"Of Tires and Tribulation"
Nothing
strikes fear in the heart of an older single woman like dealing with vehicle "issues". I mean come on...those
slick uniformed folks in the chain repair centers see the grey hair and then they see $dollar-signs$. Well, in fairness
that's probably a generalization, but my experience has been less than pleasant for the most part. It seems that
whatever that little noise or shimmy is requires major surgery. Gone are the days of the friendly neighborhood mechanic
doing a little "tweaking" and telling you that you're good to go. Or so I thought.
About a
year ago I was pumping gas and the cashier mentioned that my back tire was almost flat. She was right, and believe it
or not, it was my first flat tire in over 40 years of driving. It was obvious that I was totally at a loss as to what
to do, so she told me to pull over to the air-pump, fill the tire, and that should get me home.
So I rolled
over to the pump and, you got it, I didn't even know how to operate the dang thing. As I was standing there trying
not to look totally clueless, a fierce looking young man covered in ink and piercings pulled his vehicle over and simply said,
"I'd like to help you." After he'd finished his good deed, he told me to go see Mark at Catalina Tire.
Now, Catalina Tire is one of those businesses I'd been driving by for almost 20 years; a manufactured
home street-side on Oracle Road, a small workshop in the back, and a funky sign hanging on a chainlink fence. I
would never have thought to drive in the gate, but I figured that the young man who helped me was an angel-in-disguise and
I should trust that his advice came from the same source.
So in the gate I drove and out the back door of the house
came Mark, the owner. No uniform with name tag, no slick corporate greeting, just a how-ya-doin', what-can-I-do-for-ya.
He took a look at my tires all around, pronounced them badly worn from misalignment but with a few more thousand miles on
them if we flipped 'em, fixed my flat in a heart beat, and charged me a price that was well within my limited budget.
As he worked we talked (try visiting with a mechanic at chain service center!) about the early days in Catalina, about small
business ethics, about people we knew in common.
And you know, I left that place smiling from ear to ear.
Believe it or not, I honestly felt that the dreaded flat tire had been a blessing. Dare I say that I was happy it happened?
If I was going to have to depend on somebody to keep my vehicle in shoes, then Mark was a person I felt totally at ease with.
I trusted him completely to do what needed to be done, nothing more, nothing less.
Now fast-forward a couple thousand
miles, today as a matter of fact, time to revisit Catalina Tire. I pull in the drive and out comes Mark pulling on a
plaid wool barn jacket. Again, that slow dance around the car, kneeling to feel each tire. It's a guy-thing,
that sense of touch on tires, my husband used to do the same thing. "You can get a couple more months on these
given the way you drive."
Catalina Tire is one of the few remaining unique-to-Catalina businesses.
It's still here because it's owner-operated and its owner has integrity. Keep it small, keep it local, keep
it real.
"Light is known by what
it reveals"
I spent the last couple of days playing with the website, redesigning it. I've
been at this for a while..3 years I believe...and I really was getting tired of the same old look.
But it
got me thinking about the journey this idea of a website (and me with a 10 year-old computer and dial-up!) started for me. Catalina
had just come through the angst and emotion of a very hostile rezoning fight with a new understanding of the importance
of working together to "Save Catalina". So my intention was to keep that community spirit going
by keeping folks informed, but also to show anyone who cared to log on that Catalina was unique and really quite
wonderful. I was tired of all the news outlets ignoring us because we weren't massive consumers of their advertisers'
good and services. I was really tired of hearing developers and outsiders with personal agendas tell
us how in need of change, and their help, we were. Actually I was pretty ticked off!
So I went out into Catalina and began watching with a new sensibility, a different eye so to speak. I began looking
for, and trying to define, what I felt was the Catalina character. My essay, "Why OUR Catalina", posted
on the "Who and Why" page, was the result.
Once written, that perspective became my lens for experiencing
the community and then life in general. Each one of us is an expression of the One Big Life, whatever you
might choose to call it. Each of us is like a single cell within the larger body of humanity, just as humanity
is a single cell within the larger body of existence.
Each cell has a purpose, a unique contribution
to make to the whole. And sometimes that purpose might be to tick us off enough to cause a shift in
our perspective....or build a website! You just never know. There's light in everyone and every situation
if we'd only look deeply for what it reveals to us.
"Become the change you want to see
in the world"
Claire Johnson had her annual free Thanksgiving community dinner on Wednesday.
I really enjoy that place...Claire's Cafe...it's Cheers without the alcohol. And, Claire,... like a hyperactive
mother-hen, running around making sure everyone is happy and fed, making sure everyone has someone to talk with, and
coordinating her own personal meals-on-wheels to shut-ins..all at the same time. It was wonderful to see the place so
full and energized.
After all the hugs and hellos were done and I sat down with a friend to eat, I noticed
a photo on the wall just to my right of Norma Havens, a long-time Catalinian, now deceased. This was the chair where
Norma sat almost everyday to eat her lunch.
Last year I tried hard to connect with Norma to work on a
history of Catalina. We did have the opportunity to visit once at Claire's when Norma told me many stories
of those early days. She told me about the community coming together to build what is now the Catalina Recreation
Center, to establish places of worship in their homes, and to lobby for a local school for Catalina's youth.
But we both got too busy to immediately follow through on any further interviews and a few months later
she was gone.
I thought of all this as I ate my dinner, feeling regret and sadness, but again renewing my
commitment to our history. For me, it's not so much about documenting the who-what-when of it, but I do feel I can
play my part, as we all can, in holding on to the essence of that history. Although the
area is changing and the days of Catalina being just an outpost between Tucson and points north are
gone, I believe there is something here in this land that will always evoke that sense of community from those who live
here.
Catalina has countless unsung heroes who spend their time and money helping their neighbors in
need, or rescuing and finding homes for abandoned and abused animals, or simply picking up roadside trash on their daily
walks. Many, many here feel blessed to live in this place so close to the natural world, and have made
it an act of devotion to live gently on the land, to advocate for the Earth. These heroes don't need an organization
to direct them, they follow their hearts and do what needs to be done. They are individuals serving the collective.
We all benefit from their actions.
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