A Way to Relive Tucson's Birthday 2011

Sep 1 - Jul 31, 2012

What was the most fun you had during Tucson's Birthday celebration this year? Send us an e-mail at tucsonsbirthday@gmail.com, and we may post your story and photos to the blog.

Click on the piñata to see all the ways we celebrated, all month long!  (Hint: You may need to save after download if you don't get a preview.)

For trivia, fun facts and running commentary on Tucson's Birthday happenings, visit us on Facebook, too. And visit the Follow/Friend Us tab to connect on other social networks.

Look to the right for hundreds of Jon Scanlon's photos of 2011 events on the Tucson's Birthday Blog. You'll find even more photos in our flickr collection.

¡Feliz recuerdos!

I Remember: A Collective Poem for Tucson's Birthday 2010

Sep 1 - Jul 31, 2012

I Remember

First time in Tucson,
rolling down I-10.
A Mountain and the Santa Cruz waiting silently.
Unknowing but haunted by spirits of the past.

I remember our April move from Buffalo to Tucson:
from slushy snow to the smell of orange blossoms.

I remember seeing Saguaro cactus scattered across the desert
for the first time and thinking,
I am right where the rugged cowboy stories
of the Old West really happened.

Cruising "neon" Speedway in early 60s in shiny candy-apple hot rods, searching for Friends, Police, and Trouble,
speeding through the Alvernon raging river
followed by slashes of fierce lightening
and deep rumblings of MONSOON thunder.
We were INVINCIBLE!!!

I remember the train tracks in Barrio Anita –
standing on the metal rail feeling vibrations from miles away.
Standing as close as I could when it passed,
so I could feel the force of its movement.

I remember learning Spanish in the streets.
It became more real with each passing day,
and made me feel so much a part of Tucson.

Midnight Christmas Eve mass at San Xavier Mission
Singing carols in English, Spanish and Tohono O'odham.

I remember the clean smell of the air after my first desert rainstorm.

Snow-capped Catalina Mountains in the backdrop of my Little One (water turtle) asking for water to drink as though he were in a rainstorm from the summer monsoon.

Tucson: That Lizard doing push-ups in the sunshine – Cat waiting!

Nature's colors for June are browns & greys for the Catalinas.
August monsoon rains offer a special on moss green chalk which, when turned sideways produces the bas relief a softness for harshness.

I remember roaming Tucson, seeing, smelling, tasting:
feeling safe in the glorious sun;
a child raised by a village.

I remember June bugs, backyard cooking fires and chinaberry trees.

My heart is heatwavy here in Tucson,
Pulsing across the desert floor up to the mountains and finally to the clean sky with the white nomadic clouds.
I go slow
appreciatively.

Tucson used to be a small town trying to grow big:
It still is.

The spirit of America lies in ruins.
Can Tucson lead us to a new world?

Composed byTucson's Birthday I  Remember Workshop
Martha Cooper Branch Library
August 27, 2010 Led by Marge Pellegrino