Stories from My Dad’s Time in Tucson in the 1950s

In last week’s post, I mentioned that my dad had come to Tucson for his health. He grew up in Mississippi and suffered from asthma. The summer he was fourteen, my granddad took him on a summer trip out west, having heard that the desert air was beneficial—and they discovered it was true. As I continue to reflect on Tucson and my connections here, I thought I’d share a handful of stories about that time in his life.

The way Dad remembered it, he was feeling the difference by the time they drove across southern New Mexico. He remembers running up a hill toward a plane that was flying overhead, something he never could have done back home. They ended up in Tucson, where Dad was enrolled in the Brandes boarding school for children with respiratory diseases. (Back in the early 1950s, there were no medications to treat asthma—although the first metered-dose inhaler was introduced just a few years later, in 1956.)

I particularly remember two stories of his time at Brandes. In the first, he had newly arrived at Brandes and a student from New York came into his room and said, “Toahk…I wanna heah yah toahk!” My dad lost his southern accent very quickly! In fact, I was confused as a child about my father being from the south because he didn’t sound like other southerners I’d met!

The other Brandes story was about a place where they went camping in the summer. (Can you imagine camping in the southern Arizona heat?!) It was so hot, they slept outside on porches. For safety, the legs of the metal camp beds were placed inside tin cans that were filled with water to prevent scorpions from climbing up into the beds!

Fun fact: Did you know scorpions glow in the dark? I remember my uncle taking his grandchildren out for an evening walk and using a blacklight flashlight to look for scorpions.

Dad went on to study physics at the University of Arizona—probably in the building pictured above. My parents both went to U of A and met during college—although not at the school. They met at Presbyterian college summer camp, where they got to know each other over shared KP duty. Next week, I’ll share some stories about Mom’s cutting-edge time at U of A.

Meanwhile, I invite you to think about what it might have been like for Dad to be left at the boarding school while his father returned to Mississippi. (Granddad sold his insurance business and moved the family to Tucson a year later, so they were reunited…but still….) What pivotal events do you recall from your childhood or teenage years, and what stories do you tell about them?