[twobjshelbys]

My uncle (who is more like a brother in age) went to The Valley in the 60's. We visited every year or two. My wife and I moved there in 76. What a cool place then. We bought a house and lived in Tempe in an area that was built in the late 60's. We went to a guys farm and had permission to shoot gophers in the finished cotton fields. That area is now the Intel plant in Chandler (where I worked in the late 90's). I was looking at small town keep out of your head with no HOA properties in the Queen Creek area. Even that area is now built up.

When we were down there in the 70's I drove to Tucson and south to the military bases every couple of weeks. One time in I think February we had a rain storm. The desert between Phoenix and Tucson bloomed into an fabulous "desert blossom". I've never seen anything like it and I didn't have my camera with me. By the time I finished the work and came back north it had cleared out. Truly "Desert Paradise".