Duties of Being an Arizona Native

There are some inherent duties associated with being an Arizona native.  One is to proudly proclaim that fact whenever it is appropriate.  Another is to provide institutional knowledge on various topics that only natives or longtime residents know about.

Within the last few weeks, I was able to share some insight on two different, random subjects for two different reporters.

Karina Bland of the Arizona Republic asked readers why Arizonans “the” our freeways?  She included my comments:

Scott Hanson grew up here, in the 1960s and 1970s, just three houses and a vacant lot away from Interstate 17, which everyone referred to as “The Freeway.”
(As a kid, he delivered The Republic on his bike, which he rode on “The Freeway” because there was so little traffic.)
“It was the only one we had and thus earned the ‘the’ distinction,” Scott wrote. “Maybe that vernacular just carried over as additional freeways were built.”
Then Taylor Seely, a podcast producer for azcentral.com’s @valley101pod, posted this on Twitter:

Hi! Are you an AZ resident who has ever visited a national forest to cut your own Christmas tree?! Or, do you know someone who has? Let me know, I’d like to interview you/them for an episode of @valley101pod
I am certainly a qualified expert on this subject, as well. To hear what I had to say about it on the Valley101 podcast, click here.
Being an Arizona native also makes me relevant in a few Facebook groups, like Arizona Memories, Phoenix Remembered and You grew up in Phoenix in the 70’s if you remember….

As two new generations of Arizonans have been brought into this world, the Arizona-native distinction has become somewhat watered-down over the last couple decades.   Even so, I remember when…