Baker, Beryl

Part 1 of 2 was recorded on October 23rd, 2023 in Tucson, Arizona. The interview covers the following themes:

b. 1950 

  • Family’s move to Tucson in 1950. 

  • Early years in Jefferson Park neighborhood. Community and safety. 

  • Family’s move to Panoramic Estates in the later-1950s. Building a house. 

  • Parents’ work. 

  • Exploring the A Mountain-Tumamoc Hill area as a child. Large animal culture in Tucson. Parents’ attempt to get City to buy open land north of A Mountain. 

  • Education at Menlo Park Elementary: teachers, sports, student demographics. Experiences at Roskruge Junior High and Tucson High School. 

  • Role of music in Baker’s family. Observing the counterculture and Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. 

  • Farming alfalfa at the Far Cry Farm near Cottonwood Lane from 1972 to 1979. Friendship with rancher Ed Keeylocko. Descriptions of the Santa Cruz irrigation district, water use, vegetation, and river. Resisting soil-cementing rivers and washes. 

Part 2 of 2 was recorded on October 30th, 2023 in Tucson, Arizona. The interview covers the following themes: 

  • Far Cry Farm labor. 

  • Horseback riding around the west Tucson in the 1960s and 1970s. The A Mountain landfill and abandoned brickyards.  

  • Driving a taxi cab in 1979. 

  • Downtown Tucson and work as a delivery person for Ackerman’s Pen Shop in 1980. 

  • Move to Santa Cruz Southwest area in 1980. Fighting City of Tucson plans to change the drainage of Church Wash. 

  • Formations of Santa Cruz Southwest Neighborhood in the mid-1980s. Neighborhood opposition to City of Tucson plan for a bus barn at La Cholla and 44th. Neighborhood push for County acquisition of undeveloped land. 

  • Tucson Stormwater Management Study in the late 1980s and 1990s and the debate over cementing washes. 

  • Working on red light camera recall petition. 

  • Taking care of sheep. Animals and education. 

Aengus Anderson