Lecture at TSE (The Special Event) – part 1

This town is hummin like a ghost town…..Phoenix TSE… The Special Event took over downtown Phoenix last week. When I left Phoenix in 1978 Downtown Phoenix was a dangerous place.. The old part of town was a clapped out joint full of pimps drugs and shootings.

I was interested to see what had happened to the place of my birth, and wondered why TSE chose To hold the conference there?..

Turns out the city of Phoenix has poured money into downtown trying to bring life back to the historic section of town. This is probably the most interesting area of Phoenix(the rest is shopping malls and suburbia) full of heritage buildings built in the 1920′s during the mining boom. Though many of the buildings remain empty they have been restored and look gorgeous. Walking the streets I thing what it must have been like for my grandmother who came out to Phoenix in 1920 in a model T ford after crossing to Texas in a covered wagon. I was reminded of her stories of arriving and Phoenix only having one water tap. She had lived for years near downtown till in the 80′s when my uncle moved her after she held off the burglars  at gunpoint. Tough woman grandma, “pioneer stock” she always said.

Good to see what they had done to downtown, fixed up and looking pretty. They event brought back the trolleys that had been long gone by the time I was

born. Good but… a little erie as this old section had very little life. A few restaurants, a few hotels, the Suns stadium and the Convention Center but no people… (ok the night the Suns played it was busy for a few hours) but mostly a ghost town Until TSE arrived The two main hotels were full, the bars heaving

mostly with people we knew, the ‘event people’ had arrived..

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