So I am a product of the east coast, the mid-Atlantic states, to be exact. Yes, I was born in California but we moved back to Virginia when I was 3 months old, so I consider Fairfax, Virginia to be my "home town" when people ask. I moved to Tucson, Arizona in the summer of 2001, so I'm pretty used to it here, I like the Southwest and think that the "pros" of the Southwest (mountains, beautiful sunsets practically every day, cool desert animals and plants, beautiful weather in January, February, March, April, October and November) tend to outweigh the "cons" (can hit 110 in the shade in the summer).
Sometimes I think about our daughter growing up as an "Arizona girl" and how this is going to be different from my own childhood, particularly with regard to her relationship with the outdoors. In Virginia, the outdoors was pretty friendly. I mean, you had to watch out for some things like bees and other stinging insects, and it did get pretty hot and humid (and also cold, wet and.or snowy sometimes). But in Arizona, plants and animals are adapted for life in the desert, and this means they are not the friendliest of items. You can't go out in the side yard and play "Lost Girls" which, for my sister and I and our best friends Amy and Heather, entailed a lot of interaction with plants. We pulled moss and grass and sometimes leaves off bushes to be our "beds" and our "food" and whatever else we needed to "survive in the wilderness." I can't imagine doing this in Arizona. You can't really interact with a saguaro, or a prickly pear, or any other kind of cactus. Even trees like mesquite, which provide nice shade, often come with thorns.
We used to capture wayward turtles and keep them for a few days before returning them to Burke Lake. But out here, the nearest lake is about an hour away. And the kind of animals you run across commonly (mostly lizards and doves) tend to dart away and don't really lend themselves to being captured and observed for a day or two.
And then there's the sun...as a kid, I remember putting on sunscreen when we went to the beach. Maybe if we did some other "outdoors all day" activity. But out here, you have to learn early that you never leave home without your water, sunscreen and hat. I just bought Audrey her first floppy sun hat, designed to fit 0-3 months because the smallest sun hat anyone gave us was 6-18 months and we need one before then - although my mom did give her some infant sunglasses (see photo).
I'm sure Audrey will discover the outdoors and find some friendly bits even as she learns to avoid the plants and animals that have evolved sharp and/or poisonous desert defenses. And we'll just have to do a bit of traveling - up to Mt. Lemon, to Northern Arizona, and back East - so she can experience things like grass, deciduous trees and snow. I may be a transplant, but she will be a true Arizona girl.
Sometimes I think about our daughter growing up as an "Arizona girl" and how this is going to be different from my own childhood, particularly with regard to her relationship with the outdoors. In Virginia, the outdoors was pretty friendly. I mean, you had to watch out for some things like bees and other stinging insects, and it did get pretty hot and humid (and also cold, wet and.or snowy sometimes). But in Arizona, plants and animals are adapted for life in the desert, and this means they are not the friendliest of items. You can't go out in the side yard and play "Lost Girls" which, for my sister and I and our best friends Amy and Heather, entailed a lot of interaction with plants. We pulled moss and grass and sometimes leaves off bushes to be our "beds" and our "food" and whatever else we needed to "survive in the wilderness." I can't imagine doing this in Arizona. You can't really interact with a saguaro, or a prickly pear, or any other kind of cactus. Even trees like mesquite, which provide nice shade, often come with thorns.
We used to capture wayward turtles and keep them for a few days before returning them to Burke Lake. But out here, the nearest lake is about an hour away. And the kind of animals you run across commonly (mostly lizards and doves) tend to dart away and don't really lend themselves to being captured and observed for a day or two.
And then there's the sun...as a kid, I remember putting on sunscreen when we went to the beach. Maybe if we did some other "outdoors all day" activity. But out here, you have to learn early that you never leave home without your water, sunscreen and hat. I just bought Audrey her first floppy sun hat, designed to fit 0-3 months because the smallest sun hat anyone gave us was 6-18 months and we need one before then - although my mom did give her some infant sunglasses (see photo).
I'm sure Audrey will discover the outdoors and find some friendly bits even as she learns to avoid the plants and animals that have evolved sharp and/or poisonous desert defenses. And we'll just have to do a bit of traveling - up to Mt. Lemon, to Northern Arizona, and back East - so she can experience things like grass, deciduous trees and snow. I may be a transplant, but she will be a true Arizona girl.
2 comments:
Okay. I've got to have that picture for the collection...And you all can travel to San Diego for grass and trees...
give Audrey a few years... she will soon be teaching you why the southwest has the cool games and east coast girls are a little soft... :)
but you have peeked my curiousity... I wonder what games she will play? everything I can think of is passe and not very PC.. (cowgirls and indians?)
Post a Comment