While looking to the future, the Wood family also likes to look to the past.
Ken Wood, 74, and his younger sister, Margaret Wood-Carl, 64, were born and raised on a farm in Goodyear, one of the first families to move to the Southwest Valley.
Now they are selling the land, at Estrella Parkway and Yuma Road, to Goodyear to make way for the new Cleveland Indians spring training facility.
Ken and Margaret took some time to talk about growing up in Goodyear during a recent meeting of the Three Rivers Historical Society at the Southwest Valley Chamber of Commerce, based in Goodyear. Many in the room were also Southwest Valley natives, and can remember when Avondale consisted of 200 people before World War II.
"I was kind of hoping there would be three or four people here. I had some really good stories, but there are enough people here to keep me honest," Ken said with a laugh.
Remembering the first post office in Avondale, playing six-man football for the Litchfield High School Owls and a certain pay phone he’d use to call home for a ride, Ken is one of the few who were around before the Valley was a booming metropolis.
One football game in particular is still a state record, according to Ken. The Litchfield Owls beat Peoria High School 118-0 in 1948 and went on to win the state championship.
"The next year, we went to 11 men and didn’t win a single game," Ken said.
Ken lobbied one member of the audience, retired Spanish teacher Francis Ybarra, to change his grade from a D to a D+ or C after all these years, bribing her with chocolate.
"My favorite high school teacher is here. How many people can say that at my age?" he said.
Margaret talked of growing up on a farm, being the youngest daughter with two older brothers (Ken is the oldest) and therefore perhaps being "spoiled."
She can remember getting their first telephone, and their phone number: 649. She recalls getting a television and not even knowing what it was.
Asked how she feels about selling the land her father bought in 1934, she said, "I have such mixed emotions, it’s almost hard to take it all in. I wish we could keep it like the old days, with the beautiful green fields, but we’re happy to be a part of the new venture."
Margaret said they’re excited to see the new fields go in, and hope to see the area develop like the land around the University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale.
"We’re hoping to see something going on all year round, be very pedestrian-friendly and have shops and entertainment," she said.
Goodyear’s proposed 10,000-seat stadium and spring training fields will be part of a mixed-use development, dubbed Ballpark Village. The stadium is planned for the southeastern corner of the future Goodyear City Center at Estrella Parkway and Yuma Road.
Annemarie Moody
The Arizona Republic
