Tucson.

Postcard project with Paperworks, Tucson AZ.

In 2018 we left Brookline to move permanently (or so we thought) to Tucson Arizona.

In the beginning it was quite magical. After living our entire lives on the east coast, living in the desert was like landing on the moon. We studied the plant life, the animal life and everything in between. We went on bird watching adventures and plant identification trips. We were quite smitten with the Sonoran Desert. And those mountains. The Catalinas, the Santa Ritas, the Tucson Mountains. Each range so different from the other. The Sky Islands as they are called. . Yes, summer was hot. We learned how to get up at 5 am and go outside early in order to be back by 7 am when the heat began to make itself known. I rode my bike nearly every single day.

In the winter the snowbirds came and we made lots of friends. Only to have to say goodbye to them in April and then not see them again until winter. That became a problem for us after a couple of years. The hot summer climate makes having a community nearly impossible. Summers became very lonely for us when everyone left to go “home”. I think that was the beginning of the end for us. Was Tucson “home” after all?

And then in 2020 the pandemic hit. And like everywhere else life changed and not for the better. We could not go back east to visit family and they could not come visit us. We were isolated like we had never been before and it was not a good feeling.

One thing that became very clear to us during the pandemic was how very important it was for us to live in a blue state. In Arizona we had a Republican governor who supported Trump 100%. We began to notice just how red the state we had moved to was. They were anti vax, anti mask, you name it and they were against it. And then on January 6th it was more than clear. Phoenix was ground zero for the far right lunatics. Trump flags were flying from every pick up truck. Profane anti Biden bumper stickers were everywhere. It was more than a little frightening.

We decided we had to move back to Massachusetts. But of course by the time we realized it, prices in Brookline had risen dramatically and we were priced out. So we moved to the western part of the state. We were so relieved to be back in a blue state. Of course we never imagined Trump would win again and that he would focus on making the blue states suffer but that story is for another day.