Tag Archives: Carefree

It’s that time of year again!

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The Frango Mints have arrived! This is my work station in the casita. If you haven’t had a Frango Mint, you’re missing out.

I wrote about Frango Mints last year about this time HERE.

Every year for Christmas and Hanukkah, I mail out Frangos to my husband’s clients. They are a traditional holiday gift in Washington, my home state, where they were first made for Frederick & Nelson’s, a wonderful department store that no long exists.

I keep my postal workers in mind and follow their suggestions of when the best days and hours are to stop at the Carefree post office with my stacks of Frangos. It’s a tiny place and only one or two postal workers are on duty at any time. The people in Carefree who wait patiently in line behind me are so kind and nobody gets upset. I had a very different experience living in Palm Springs which I describe in last year’s story (link above). I also give Frangos to the postal workers. I notice they get showered with gifts each Christmas season.

The history of Frangos is printed on the back of the box.

I hope to get everything done and mailed in one week. After that I’ll be traveling to see my dad who was in the hospital totally out of it and incoherent for a few days. Now he’s in skilled nursing care and thriving. He’s alert, doing PT and eating well. It’s time to make some choices for his future. He may be choosing to enter assisted living at the same place where he’s in skilled nursing. He’s been living on his own, but he’s turning 94 in January. Yes, he does need more care than he needed the past few years.

What traditions do you have for the holidays? Any special foods, treats or movies?

A Carefree Visit on Easy Street

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This is a view of the park we have in the center of the little town of Carefree, population 3,672. There’s a playground, the Carefree Desert Gardens and one of the largest sundial’s in the country. Friday means that I visit Carefree for the farmer’s market. I look forward to that each fall when the weather cools down and I can buy fresh veggies. (All photos are from my iphone, except for the one of the sundial which I googled and snagged off the internet.)

The Carefree Sundial located on Easy Street in the Carefree city center is 35 feet tall. Oh yes, it works!

This is the slide at the playground. I was surprised one Friday morning to see my outgoing, social neighbor with her little fluffy white dog Rascal going down the slide over and over. Rascal going down the slide that is, not my neighbor.

There is artwork throughout Carefree’s city center. I’ve taken a few photos of the sculptures found throughout the circle on Easy Street.

We purchased this sculpture for our house, of course in a more practical size. It was made by a local Carefree artist and only 10 of the smaller statues were made.

A bit of Carefree history.

The Carefree city center has water features, too, which is a welcome sight in the desert. My DIL, who went with me to the farmer’s market on a visit commented on how water is a priceless item in a desert, hence it’s prominent feature in the town. Words of wisdom.

I hope you enjoyed my tour of Carefree and the sights on Easy Street.

Happy Friday! What plans do you have for the weekend?

I had to add “Carefree Highway” from Gordon Lightfoot to this post.

Fun facts about Carefree

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A Christmas tree across from the post office on Easy Street in Carefree, Arizona.

There’s a little town near us where I do my grocery shopping, visit the farmer’s market and enjoy my favorite coffee shop. It’s called Carefree. I mentioned it in Friday’s post HERE.

I was interested in the history of Carefree when I wrote about Easy Street. Who named the street? Who came up with the idea of a town? I discovered the answers on several websites:

In 1946, Tom Darlington and K.T. Palmer met at a Kiwanis luncheon in the Adams Hotel in Phoenix, where the seminal idea of Carefree was born. Years later, both men found themselves working in a Scottsdale real estate office and their previously monumental dream was rekindled. Despite their differences, they both lived by the ideals of thrift, industry, honesty and loyalty. They carried out many expensive joint ventures on a simple handshake. 

In 1955, a 400-acre goat farm north of Scottsdale was found with an abundant well, and 2,200 surrounding acres were secured.  K.T. named their joint business venture the Carefree Development Corp., and the name “Carefree” was regularly used to describe their vision of the Town they proposed. In 1958, the Darlington-Palmer building was finished in the downtown area (that building is now Town Hall) and in 1959, the iconic Sundial was completed. 

https://www.carefree.org/page/history

This is one of the largest sundials in the world and can be found in the city center of Carefree. It stands 35 feet tall.

  • Back in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Carefree was home to the 160 acre Southwestern Studios, a TV production and filming facility. The Dick Van Dyke show was one of the most popular shows filmed there.
  • Carefree has some of the most entertaining street names in any town in the United States. You will see names like “Long Rifle,” “Tranquil Trail,” “Stagecoach Pass,” “Lazy Lane”, “Nonchalant Avenue,” “Rocking Chair Road,” “Bloody Basin” and my personal favorites “Ho” and “Hum.”
  • Carefree has a charming downtown with a large number of galleries, Southwestern Art and Jewelry, specialty crafts stores and more.

https://www.livebetterinscottsdale.com/2011/09/the-town-of-carefree-arizona-some-facts-and-a-carefree-lifestyle

The whimsical street names came from a dinner party. KT and Tom mentioned they hadn’t come up with names. The guests began throwing out their ideas and the main street was named Easy Street. It intersects with Wampum Way. One street that I find peculiar is Tranquil Trail, which turns into Bloody Basin.

This is a sculpture in the heart of Carefree. The tents behind it are from the Farmer’s Market.

Home to around 3,000 people, Carefree is a friendly, beautiful spot. I’m glad we ended up next door. When we moved, I hadn’t been to the town. I asked a neighbor where the closest grocery store was and that was when I discovered the town.

“Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot pens the song “Carefree Highway”, the second single released from his album, Sundown. In October 1974, it peaks at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spends one week at #1 on the Easy Listening chart.” https://www.carefree.org/page/history

What fun facts have you discovered about where you live?

Just say no…

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Bobcat on wall
A bobcat sitting on our wall outside the front door.

I’m having one of those weeks where I have at least one big thing on the calendar each day. Monday through Sunday. Plus, my Frango project that I wrote about Monday HERE as well as an ever expanding list of work and writing to do.

Anywho. I decided to say no to my Thursday meetings and get stuff done. It felt so good to say NO.

I went to a Board of Director’s meeting Wednesday night for my Creative Women’s Group. We raise funds to support victims of sex trafficking. You can read about a residential facility we support HERE. They have a link to our group’s fundraiser HERE. It’s last year’s event, so I’ll ask them to update it to our March 2025 event.

I needed to get my own list of things done. Like going to the post office with boxes of Frangos to mail. I have to say the people are so nice here. Not at all like So Cal where people were impatient with me and my multiple packages to mail. To be honest, in Palm Springs, they were downright nasty and cursing. The employees were great by the way. The Carefree folks, employees and customers, are chatty and love to laugh.

The Post Office is on Easy Street. Think of that. Easy Street in Carefree, Arizona. Love it.

I joked with two women standing behind me in line that I needed my husband to retire so I could quit the Frango job. They laughed and one said, “Oh, you’ll find out there will be other things that he will do to keep you busy.”

The other one said, “I tell my husband Yoyo.”

“Yoyo?” we asked.

“Yoyo. Your on your own!”

Not to go off on a tangent, but I have a Frango dilemma. I’m missing 40 boxes of Frangos. I ordered them weeks ago. I got an email confirming my order. Next, I got an email saying they had shipped and were on their way. I clicked on the tracking link and I read a notice from UPS that said they never received the box. I called the store. They said they’d be delivered by Dec. 4 and that UPS was wrong and hadn’t updated their notification. Well guess what? I still don’t have them.

I was so proud of myself for starting this project early. I guess it’s a good thing!

When do you find yourself saying no? Are you overwhelmed when you say no, or do you say no as a preventative self care measure?

It’s that time of year! Frango time!

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Every year, for as long as I can remember during my married life, I’ve helped my husband with Holiday cards and small gifts of appreciation for his clients. I add that to my personal cards and friends and family gifts.

Frango mints hold a dear place in my heart. When I was in elementary school, Mom would drive me to the city (Seattle) for back-to-school shopping at Frederick & Nelson’s, an old fashioned department store. Frederick’s had an amazing toy section, books, clothing, even a Steuben glass room and a whole floor of fabrics, patterns and notions. We’d have lunch at the counter in the basement and after lunch, Mom would buy me a single Frango mint.

When I have a Frango mint, I remember Mom.

For the past years, I’ve mailed out Frangos to my husband’s clients. It’s quite a project and I’m pleased that over our quiet Thanksgiving weekend I got started.

I enjoyed when my daughter was in high school and helped me with this project because two hands are better than one!

I’ll never forget one year in the Palm Springs post office, when the postal worker asked me to re-label my stack of Frango Mints to save money on mailing. My daughter and I wrote new labels as fast as we could, and the postal worker was ringing them up and punching into her computer. We actually had teamwork going and it didn’t slow down the process at all for those waiting behind us. It looked like it did — because of us filling out new labels — but in reality it took no more time. The postal worker was moving as fast as she could and she hadn’t caught up to our new labeling.

But the comments and cursing I heard that day! My daughter had my back and defended us loudly to those behind us. I was afraid one impatient person was going to come to blows with us. Or my daughter would get into a fight defending me.

I’ve made friends with our postal workers in Carefree (like I did for 30 years in Palm Springs) and gave them their own box of Frangos. This will be my third year of overwhelming the small Carefree post office with packages. They’ve told me to never come in on Mondays and what hours are best. I’ve also learned to come in on multiple days with no more than ten to a dozen boxes. It may take a few more trips, but I understand how people in line get annoyed at having to wait.

I’ve never had a bad experience with a postal worker. Just the people waiting behind me. I’ve also found people in Carefree are happier and more patient than the Palm Springs customers.

Thankfully, gift giving in our family has gotten smaller and easier. It’s spending time together that’s most important. I can’t wait for Christmas this year with our kids coming to our home for the first time to celebrate. The past few years, we’ve rented a place in Palm Springs or Santa Barbara to be together.

So what are Frangos?

I’m so glad I joined!

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The Desert Foothills Library.

After living in Arizona for three years and buying books on Amazon, a few weeks ago I discovered our library in the foothills of Cave Creek. Hence the name — Desert Foothills Library.

I joined but didn’t check out any books until this week. I was reading a three-book series by Lisa See called the Red Princess Mysteries — that I bought from Amazon. The day I finished the third book, I packed them up and headed to the library. The library has a section called “Second Chapter” where you can buy books for 50 cents to a dollar. I donated the three Lisa See books, plus, went through my bookshelves to find a dozen other books I liked, but didn’t necessarily want to keep.

In Palm Springs, the local library was part of my weekly routine. We checked out VHS movies when the kids were little. I did research for my writing there. I got the kids’ library cards when they turned four years old. Every week we went to check out books. It was as essential to our daily lives as the grocery store.

I’ll never forget after watching a number of movies with my son including “Sound of Music,” “An American in Paris,” “Singing in the Rain,” and Meet Me in St. Louis.” One day he asked, “Mom, do they make any movies where they don’t sing and dance?”

At least he got a good dose of 1950s and ’60s culture.

It felt really good to walk inside the library. After donating my books, I walked up and down the aisles and read a variety of jacket covers and blurbs. I felt like I should celebrate after checking out my first book!

Do you belong to a library near you? What’s your favorite thing about libraries?

Inside the Desert Foothills Library.

A glorious visit

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A page from my parents wedding album given to me by my aunt who visited last week. Mom and Dad were 23!

A strange thing happened during my aunt’s visit. I glanced over at the sofa and Olive the cat was sitting next to my aunt licking her fingers! Now this is a first. Olive has never let a guest touch her or vice versa. Olive does sleep with my daughter, but that doesn’t count because she was my daughter’s cat until college took my daughter away.

My aunt and I did most of the things on my list and we found ourselves very compatible. We both got hungry at the same time, wanted quiet time in the afternoons to ourselves and went to bed early to read. Having a house guest doesn’t get much better than that!

It cooled down considerably, we lit the outdoor fireplace and cooked s’mores. We hiked in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. We went to the farmer’s market in Carefree and explored consignment stores in Cave Creek. We had some delicious lunches and dinners out, plus I cooked. We visited the Musical Instrument Museum and to my delight, they changed up a few exhibits so there were new things for me to enjoy.

You might wonder what would be exciting about visiting a museum of musical instruments.

From the MIM, here’s the Artists’s Gallery experience:

ARTIST GALLERY

Celebrate music’s most influential artists.

In every time and place, there are musicians whose art deeply touches the lives of many. MIM’s Artist Gallery highlights these personalities with ever-changing exhibits that span sound, style, and era. Through generous partnerships, MIM features historic instruments owned, played, and loved by the musicians who have created a shared soundtrack to our lives for generations.

Nearly 40 displays showcase instruments and artifacts from some of the greatest musicians in the world. See and hear instruments played by icons such as Elvis Presley®, Tito Puente, the Carter Family and Johnny Cash, Roberta Flack, Glen Campbell, Joan Baez, Maroon 5, and many others.

https://mim.org/artist-gallery/#

The exhibits not only have the artists’s grammy awards, gold records, costumes and instruments, they have a large screen that plays selections of their songs on the headsets you wear. I think my favorite was “Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison. On display is his hand written lyrics on a yellow legal pad. So not only do you get to sing along with Roy, you get to see how he wrote it, along with a photo of him and his pretty woman. There are many other galleries from all over the world. I haven’t touched the whole of MIM yet.

Here are a few photos from my aunt’s visit:

What is your idea of a perfect house guest? What do you like to do when entertaining company?