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Sedona (circa 1986) |
Not the Same Sedona
By Kevin Ordean
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Sedona.biz
(Sedona, Arizona) - The story always starts the same. “We came here on vacation and decided to move
here.” Talk to just about any resident of Sedona and they will recount a similar tale.
I was only 7 years old at the time, and not thrilled about pulling
up stakes in Malibu Canyon, California to move to the desert of
Arizona.Sedona was different in 1986. Everyone knew one
another, store credit was given to visiting relatives, and
traffic was not an issue. I can vividly recall walking down 179 in the
Village of Oak Creek and not being concerned about cars.
This was a time when anything more than a small
grocery trip necessitated a drive to Phoenix, or to Flagstaff if you
didn't need too much. I am not talking about the Phoenix of today
that begins at Black Canyon City. This was the Phoenix where Bell
Road was the street and the Metro Center was the mall
to go shopping for school clothes.
The Posse Ground Park was the main activity center because it had fields. We used to play in the Forest Service for hours, and at night
there was the Flicker Shack, a single screen
movie theater that was the only place to see a movie. Now it's
New
Frontiers Natural Foods.
There wasn’t a whole lot of TV watching
going on because we had forts to build and places to explore.
But as soon as we
found the perfect place to build a fort, a new neighborhood would be put there. I
can’t tell you how many perfectly good tree forts were lost to the
bulldozers.
Sedona was growing as fast as we
were. Where there were fields and dirt lots now stood houses and
hotels. Where you once knew all the clerks by first name you would
see new faces and bigger businesses. Where there was Fizbo's burger shop,
now there's an Ace Hardware.
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Sedona (circa 1986) |
I spent my freshman year as a "Marauder" at the Mingus Union High School which was
a forty-five minute bus ride from where I lived in the Village of Oak Creek.
The Sedona Red Rock High School opened shortly thereafter and I spent the rest
of my high school years there. The school was by no means complete.
It actually
resembled a prison more than a school, and we had to deal
with constant construction and barbed wire fences.I graduated from Sedona Red Rock High School in the summer of 1997 as a member
of the first graduating class.
After high school I moved to Los
Angles for three years. But I missed the peace and quiet of Sedona
and moved back. In that short time, Sedona had grown in leaps and bounds;
big hotels, stop lights everywhere and, of course, lots of traffic. Again I departed and did not return until I had a wife and
child of my own in 2004. This time I found not one but two
Starbucks, and where the “Y” used to be is the monolithic Hyatt hotel. I decided
to settle in Cornville.
There was a time when I
was very angry about what had become of my little town. Now, I just
don’t like the traffic.
Kevin Ordean is currently a property manager and a realtor.