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Today is Friday, January 27 2012
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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


Join the Celebration!

Read our blog! Click here or scroll down this column. Find dozens more photos here. 

See the pictures! Remember the birthday fun on flickr.


Tucson's Birthday is endorsed by:

Linda Ronstadt and Big Jim Griffith. 

Read Our Blog

10/5/2011

Our History in Layers

This video illustrates Tucson downtown, today, then what it may have looked like in the early presidio era, then what it might have looked like as a pit house village before the presidio was established. The base of an ancient pit house has been excavated for public interpretation within the reconstructed walls of the Presidio at the corner of Washington and Church Streets.


10/5/2011

La Dona del Pueblo: Cele Peterson



As we embark on our sixth Tucson's Birthday celebration, it's fun to recall that it started out as a CELEbration, Cele's idea of a festival about all the reasons we love living in Tucson. It's possible no one loved it more than she, and Tucson loved her back. Many thanks to Michael McNulty for this amazing footage of Cele telling her stories and celebrating her own 100th birthday. See how many faces you recognize.

9/19/2011

Some of My Favorite Images of the 2011 Tucson's Birthday Celebration. By Jon Scanlon

Photos By Jon Scanlon

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