One Woman s View: The more things change
Contributing writer
I set out on a great adventure Feb. 15 when I boarded a plane for Phoenix, Ariz. You can get an inkling of how adventurous I felt, if you realize I had never previously been farther west than Liberal. However, some aspects of my vacation reminded that the more things change the more they stay the same.
The friends I visited met me at the airport and we drove south across the Indian reservation to Casa Grande. Someone at the airport told me it had not rained there in 117 days, and the landscape confirmed his statement. People were crying for moisture when I left Kansas, and I arrived to the same complaint in Arizona. I have never seen more desolate country. Most of the way I could see nothing but endless stretches of sand with occasional clumps of sagebrush backed by distant mountains which were only huge ridges of rock with no vegetation on them. By comparison, Kansas had been lush. I admit I did view some saguaro cactus and beautiful flowering shrubs in Phoenix and Casa Grande, and most of the deciduous trees had not shed their leaves. That seemed very different.
Marion County friends like Jonas and Kim Frantz, Alan and Virginia Bentz, and the Muellers will be amazed or amused to learn that on my second day in Arizona I paid good money to tour a dairy farm. Admittedly, it was a more extensive operation than I could have viewed in my own backyard.
Shamrock Farms milks 10,000 cows. They begin milking at 5 a.m., and my tour group watched the last ones being milked about 12:30 or 1 p.m. The process would begin all over again at 5 p.m. We were transported on a huge tram to see not only the milk barn, but the feedlots, calf pens, and hospital. We were offered the treat of donning a surgical glove and petting a baby calf, but I declined. I think I can pet a calf in Kansas, even with my bare hands.
On the third day I admit I saw something I probably could not have come across at home. O'ddham Tash was going on a couple blocks from my hosts' home. This is some kind of Indian festival, featuring a carnival and some Navajo craft booths. I passed on the carnival, but did some shopping (mostly of the window variety) at the craft booths. I guess there weren't really any windows, but you get the idea. I asked several people about the meaning of O'ddham Tash and got conflicting answers. One of the craft vendors said, "I don't know. That's Pima, and we're Navajo." If it was a Pima festival, it seemed strange all the exhibitors at the craft fair were Navajo. Another Indian of whom I inquired told me O'ddham Tash was simply the name of the local Indian tribe. Maybe I can discover a more satisfactory explanation before I leave.
In the evening I was back to the theme of "the more things change
Because of the lead time needed to produce a newspaper, I'm having to write this before the end of my vacation, although I may be home before you read it. I'm sure I will see many unusual sights and enjoy a host of new experiences. I am enjoying the spring temperatures. I still am full of the spirit of adventure. However, I have to chuckle when I think I have traveled about a thousand miles to see many of the same things I left behind. Although travel can be a great adventure, life and people everywhere still are more the same than different.
