[Tortoise Hiker]

Happy Birthday Arizona!
I've been enjoying this great state for most of my 50years! I was wondering how many Arizona Natives (besides me) are HAZ members. Arizona rocks as do all you Hazers!

[trekkin gecko]

what was it like back in the olden days, denny?
not a native (NE)
been here 13 years and love that you can do something outside every day of the year
the diversity of this state is amAZing

[johnr1]

born in Tucson, stuck in Phoenix

[Tortoise Hiker]

Hey Kelly,
We were kinda poor so I didn't get out of town much.I remember that there was only 1 Frreway(I-17) and the median was oleander bushes. I had a fort in the River Bottom around 16th street made out of Tumble weeds.My first regular job not counting collecting pop bottles and mowing yards was a paper route.I worked all summer after 7th grade and used all the money to buy my first bike at Grants on 16th strret and Southern.I used that bike to get the paper route in the 8th grade.The newspaper cost $1.05for the whole week Ah oh,you know I'm long winded. I could go on and on.

[joe bartels]

@Tortoise Hiker
You forgot to mention the soapbox races at South Mountain!
Anytime I'm there with someone new I point that out ever since you told me

BTW... what grade were you in when they switched over from candles to electricity?

[WilliamnWendi]

Born in Tucson, but raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Moved to Phoenix back in '96 after 4 years in the Navy... guess I had enough of life on the water so I moved to a desert. Happy 100, AZ!

[Moovyoaz]

I was born in Phoenix 57 years ago at Good Sam Hospital. About 20 years ago I bought an Arizona 50th Anniversary 'Days & Ways' book published by the Az Republic. It's interesting to see all the companies that are long gone (O'Mally's, Yellow Front) and other memories of Arizona and Phoenix. There's even a picture of my father milking cows on our dairy west of Tolleson to remind me why I moved to Phoenix!
As for what it was like in the 'Good Ol' Days'.. well, it was hot!

[Trishness]

Happy Centennial Arizona! I've been real happy here the last 13 years.

[azbackpackr]

I have lived in Arizona for 26 years. Love it! Native Californian, and I'm probably not going home, SORRY!

[paulhubbard]

My grandparents on both sides moved to Flagstaff when they were younger (ages unknown) - My mother & father both born and raised in Flagstaff, went to UofA, then moved back to Flag. My two sisters and I were all born and raised in Flag. I lived in Sydney for 4 months, my longest stint outside of the state.

Does that make me a native?

[Outdoor Lover]

Does that make me a native?

As long as you were born here, lol!

Amazing how some things come full circle...Born in Scottsdale, moved to MN and lived for 14 years before moving back, and now I'm back living in the same house I was born in.

The summers didn't seem as hot growing up. Used to run and walk barefoot everywhere when I was a kid. And catch Horned Toads in the alley behind my house. (Haven't seen one in this area in decades). The Desert started at Chapparal Rd, 43rd Avenue and Dobson Rds. The farms and ranches started at Broadway rd. Gilbert and Chandler were all farms, there was no Fountain Hills until high school and Tempe, well Tempe was always there because of ASU. You had to go through Wickenburg to get to LA.

The thing I miss the most is the summer monsoons...Every summer you had a true monsoon. It rained in town, just about every day and brought some nice relief. We didn't even have air conditioning growing up, just a Swamp Cooler. All of my parents' friends lived in the same neighborhood and the "block parties" were something else, lol! Everyone walked to school. Metro Center was the only big mall in town until Fiesta Mall. Los Arcos was the place to hang out for all of us Scottsdale kids. There were only 3 high schools in Scottsdale until Chapparal opened, out in the middle of nowhere.

We didn't travel much, a big outing for my parents with 4 kids was going up north every year to get a Christmas tree. And to CA to see my mother's relatives. When I left to go to MN, I was so happy to say goodbye to AZ and the dry, arid desert, that I could hardly contain myself. Little did I know then how much I would come to miss it and I definitely learned to appreciate all of it's beauty and diversity. I missed seeing mountains and saguaros and large expanses of wilderness without a house or farm in sight. I have truly grown to love this state and unless I win the lottery and can live in a house on a tropical beach somewhere, Arizona will always be home.....

[coanbru]

Happy Birthday Arizona!
I've been enjoying this great state for most of my 50years!

Denny...were the dinosaurs really as big as in the picture books?
Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Phoenix (13 years now)

[Jim Lyding]

I remember the monsoons being stronger when I was a kid (mid-80s), but I also think that I remember the storms much more than the dry afternoons.

I'm a 2nd generation Arizonan. My father was born in Ajo in an Army Air Force hospital, and I was born in St. Joseph's on Thomas Ave. in Phoenix. It's good to see so many people take Arizona as an adopted home, and I consider it to be "home" myself. Maybe one day....
I received a few compliments on my bright red shirt today even though I didn't wear it for Valentine's Day, but I certainly remembered that today was the state of Arizona's 100th birthday. Bear Down Arizona!

[chumley]

A good way to celebrate the anniversary is by going local!

[Tough_Boots]

@chumley

Can I have the Wet Snout... and one of those cupcakes?

[WilliamnWendi]

@chumley

Can I have the Wet Snout... and one of those cupcakes?

Where does one find this "Wet Snout"? I always love a good milk stout I mean as long as we're celebrating milestones

[chumley]

Sleepy Dog Brewery in Tempe. Bottles available at select locations around the valley. I got all those at Whole Foods.

[Al_HikesAZ]

I was born in Phoenix 57 years ago at Good Sam Hospital. About 20 years ago I bought an Arizona 50th Anniversary 'Days & Ways' book published by the Az Republic. It's interesting to see all the companies that are long gone (O'Mally's, Yellow Front) and other memories of Arizona and Phoenix. There's even a picture of my father milking cows on our dairy west of Tolleson to remind me why I moved to Phoenix!
As for what it was like in the 'Good Ol' Days'.. well, it was hot!

You're a youngster. I almost remember before I-17 went in. And the long gone A-1 Beer. But it was a dry heat. And we would chase the fish on the Salt River near Tempe to catch them before the monsoon rains came. They were so used to our dry rivers that they would drown when the water came.

[WilliamnWendi]

guess I"ll be stopping at Wholefoods!

[chumley]

And the long gone A-1 Beer.

Nimbus brought A-1 back. It's not the same, but apparently it wasn't really ever the same, having been much different in the 70s than it was in the 40s.