Left in Tucson

Fred the buffalo belongs to a cast of Tucson icons. You don't have to look too hard to discover some very unique "Brand" statues. "Weird New Jersey" has got nothing on Tucson when it comes to unusual structures. Here are some of Fred's pals to be seen along the byways of Tucson. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that "Greasy Tony's," the New Brunswick, New Jersey famous (and infamous) Rutgers University fast-food take-out place of the 1960's and 1970's, had moved and taken up residence on the outskirts of the U of Arizona campus. Greasy Tony's will forever remain in the memories of former Rutgers Grads as the best place for a Cheesesteak sandwich, and the place whose front glass windows were permanently glazed with a grease film so thick that it made it impossible to see through. Fort Lowell Park sports a cavalry bugler at it's front entrance. Fort Lowell was the home of the U.S. Calvary installed to protect the inha

One of my favorite quirky sights to be found in Tucson is Fred the buffalo. Depending on the season or the particular holiday of the year, you will find Fred properly attired. The folks at Copper Country Antiques on Speedway Blvd. never fail to come up with a crazy original get-up for Fred. Fred gets spray painted all sorts of colors, sports a wild variety of ponchos, blankets, hats, you name it. Fred even has his own 15-foot sailboat that is also parked on top the roof. Fred stands proudly at the helm dressed in whatever suits his fancy. Sometimes, Fred will have a banner expressing his political opinion on a current local or national topic. Other times, his message might be in support of the U of A Basketball, Baseball or Football team. Fred is at his best dressed for the annual Rodeo each February. There is also a Mrs. Fred and a family of little buffaloes.

By the spring of 2007, Jim and I had been together for eight years when we moved from a small historical village set in Somerset County, central New Jersey to the metropolis of Tucson, Arizona. Jim had taken an engineering job with Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson the year before, while I stayed in New Jersey, getting comfortable with my new job at the recently merged Alcatel-Lucent, a global broadband communications networking and IP technologies company, and waiting for Jim to find the house of his dreams in Tucson before putting my New Jersey home of 20+ years onto the real estate market. Jim kept up a steady email barrage of digital photos and descriptions of all the natural beauty and wonder he was discovering in the desert southwest. He also provided me with loads of educational tidbits to prepare me for my immersion into this new world. His “Get to know your Neighbors” emails consisted of photos and stories about d eadly spiders, scorpions, diamondback snakes, ja

I have decided to use this space to chronicle my "time" in Tucson. Calling it "Left in Tucson." That was Jim's suggestion due to the unusually high number of left-handed people who call Tucson home. It's hard to believe, until you start taking notice at restaurants, at the grocery check-out, the movies, the library, etc. Tucson likes to consider itself a mecca for artists, sort of a poor cousin of Santa Fe. Everyone knows that lefties are the creatives, or like to think of themselves that way. Yes, there is lots of public art, as well as galleries and art fairs. It's amazing how many stores have their windows regularly painted (by the many starving artists, I imagine) to promote a holiday or a special promotion. As a kid in New Jersey, I remember downtown windows being painted for Halloween, Christmas and maybe Easter, but nothing like this. Even the mechanic who keeps my 1986 Mercedes Benz 560SL humming along gets his front window painted with some them