I distinctly remember being terrified of the prospect of being sent
to Mother Higgins' when I was a real little kid. I had a propensity
to wander around the east side of town, I would wake up hours before
the rest of the family and head on out to see the day. When I learned
how to ride a bike I would ride all day, way up Sabino Canyon and way
out south on Houghton. I lived near Broadway and Wilmot at the time
and I bet the police were out looking for me 10 times a year. This
was all around 1970-71 and I guess the world was a safer place or I
was just lucky that nothing bad ever happened to me.
Eventually, my eldest two sisters(There were nine of us kids) were
assigned the duty of keeping an eye on me and that basically meant
that I got to cruise Speedway every other Friday night, back when it
was still a fairly cool thing to do. My sister Agnes had a '64
Mercury Monterey Convertible, Pink with a white top and she and my
sister Maureen would do some truly ridiculous things, not so much
racing as flirting and breaking hearts.
In '74 my Mom got a '72 Monterey 4-door with a huge engine and when
my brother Pierce turned 16 that car was the end of a lot of Camaro
and Mustang owners dreams of glory. It was very much a "sleeper" and
I still recall the looks on some faces as it tore down Speedway.
I guess the legend of Mother Higgins faded away about '76 or so, by
the time I started High school everyone was just afraid of "Juvie"
and I really didn't think about Mother Higgins up until about ten
years ago when the name came up in a conversation at work. Funny how
some things fade away.
My friends on the east side used to party out at 17 poles, which was
past Harrison on Broadway and my west side friends would party
at "The Flats" at the base of Saginaw Hill. 17 poles has been gone
since the 80's but The Flats was still a viable spot up until a
couple years ago. Now it's a Superfund toxic waste site and I wonder
how many generations of us were exposed to arsenic? Maybe all the
beer consumed helped mitigate the exposure.
There are still places to race around town, just as stupid now as it
was then and I imagine that kids are planning a kegger for this
weekend in some desert spot.The face of Tucson changes constantly,
but there's still not really much to do on a Friday night around
here, that's why I love it so much.
Sorry if this is a long post, but I could go on forever, maybe I
should write a book and steal the name from that song about Speedway,
"The Ins and The Outs and the In-Betweens" I think it was called.
