Leisureville by Andrew D. Blechman

Author:Andrew D. Blechman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 2008-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

9

Necropolis

SUN CITY, SUN CITY WEST, AND THE NEWER SUN CITY GRAND ALL border a major thoroughfare called Grand Avenue, which connects the distant town of Wickenburg on one end with downtown Phoenix on the other. The Sun Cities sit just outside Phoenix, in an area called the West Valley.

Although Phoenix now dwarfs the little community of Wickenburg, this was not always the case. In 1863, a lone German miner, Henry Wickenburg, discovered gold in the far western valley. Several years later and some fifty miles to the southeast, another adventurer decided to revive a prehistoric canal system and cultivate produce for the rapidly growing population of Wickenburg. He transported the food using a wagon trail that connected the two settlements. At the time, it was called Vulture Road.

It is said that during the restoration of the ancient irrigation system, an Englishman looked at the parched ruins of the Hohokum tribe and said, “A city will rise phoenixlike, new and more beautiful, from these ashes of the past.” He was right about Phoenix, but as far as Del Webb was concerned, the Englishman might as well have been talking about Sun City.

By the time Sun City came onto the scene in the early 1960s, the surrounding area with its bountiful aquifer was mainly used for growing long-fiber cotton named after the Pima tribe. But when the price of cotton plummeted after World War II, landowners began courting developers, like Webb, who bought up thousands of acres. Webb cut swooping curves into the starkly angular fields, and steered the West Valley’s flagging economy from cotton balls to golf balls.

Although Sun City’s first residents complained of cricket infestations, tumbleweed, and valley fever (a lung infection caused by windblown spores), the community’s early years were nevertheless brimming with promise. Webb developed the community in phases, but the homes sold so briskly that it was as if the construction never stopped. Every year or two residents saw the completion of yet another recreation center, golf course, or shopping area, in addition to hundreds and hundreds of homes. It was an optimistic era fueled by Webb’s seemingly continuous investment.

Sun City’s very first recreation center, called the Oakmont, has undergone some minor renovations over the years, but for the most part it looks much as it did when it opened in 1960. It’s decidedly small by today’s standards. There’s one large room that can be used for small theatrical presentations, dances, and other gatherings. Down the hall is a workout room with equipment that looks about twenty years old. On the day I visit, a few men in trousers and collared shirts walk on treadmills or slowly pedal stationary bicycles, as “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones fills the room.

In the other direction is a room for the jewelry club, which costs just four dollars a year to join. One door down is the pottery club. I find several women giggling as they trade gossip and paint molded ceramic kittens, puppies, and other tchotchkes. One woman

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