As a little girl, growing up in Mesa, Arizona back in the 1950's, I thought we lived in the most wonderful place in the world. Mesa was in the middle of the Sonoran,Desert, but because of irrigation and electricity, unless you drove out of town you really didn't know you were in a hot, dry place.
I loved our back yard on North McDonald Street It was a cool, shady place with big old trees and deep green grass. Every week dad irrigated. The lawn was six or so inches lower than the surrounding sidewalk, so when the irrigation came it filled up the yard. Sometimes mom let us play in the irrigation, and for a little girl it seemed very deep, like swimming in a swimming pool. I guess it got too deep occasionally, because I vaguely remember mom and dad having to carry buckets of water up our basement stairs when the irrigation flooded the cellar.
There were lots of green, cool parks in Mesa back in those days, were we could go for picnics. One of my favorite places was Rendezvous Park. It was big and open, with lots of green grass to play on, tall trees for shade, and a surrounding sidewalk perfect for skating. There was recreation center where we had city wide jump rope and jacks tournaments, but best of all there was a public swimming pool where we spent many happy summer afternoons and evenings.
My mom and dad had lots of brothers and sisters who also lived in Mesa, and we were a close family. Often we would get together at the park for a picnic and swimming. I vaguely remember mom and my aunts in swimming suits, and even Grandma Johnson went swimming once in a while, I think. I remember how funny they all looked in swimming caps, and the way the plastic snapped against their heads after they pulled it out to tuck in their hair.
There was a kiddie pool at Rendezvous Park as well as a big people pool. The toddlers played in the kiddie pool, but sometimes dad would take us into the big pool so we could really swim. Once grandma brought a bunch of empty plastic milk jugs for us to hold onto. Since they were filled with air they floated, and made good toys for keeping little kids above the water. We were pretty unsophisticated back then, but I think we had as much fun, perhaps even more, than the kids do today.
OMG I also grew up in Mesa. As a young boy me and my friends would shag foul baseballs that would bounce into the street during the baseball games at Rendezvous. I also remember playing football on that long strip of grass along Sirren street.I remember the tennis court and the shuffle board court and the Park and Recreation station area. And lets forget the skating rink off of Center street across the street from Irving School...Those were the days.. This used to be my playground..
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