In ‘76 I passed through Apache Jct. on my way from Tucson to Canyon Lake. I was contracted to conduct an underwater search for a couple Russian heirloom diamond rings that an angry wife had tossed overboard at the marina, but that’s a story for another time.
We stopped at the A.J. Bayless for provisions, and I noticed a clump of local teenagers hanging around the front corner of the store. I wondered what life would be like for a kid in a small town like that. But if they liked to hike, bird watch, take wilderness photos, shoot, hunt, ride off-road, fish, go boating, or water ski, it would be great.
I think I was waterskiing on Canyon Lake that day.
That was you!?
What a small world.
And if Bayless was still open in ‘76, that had to be the last one. The one on Speedway and Campbell closed up a long time before that.