{"id":780,"date":"2010-12-20T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=780"},"modified":"2010-12-20T07:00:21","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T14:00:21","slug":"christmas-story-a-costco-family-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/780\/christmas-story-a-costco-family-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"A Costco family Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story<\/i><\/p>\n

“Okay, so one day we’re driving, and we’re just about to get on the freeway, and I look up and the sign says, ‘Squaw Peak Freeway.'”<\/p>\n

The Kid said that. Maybe eleven years old, tall and thin. Tousled brown hair and the most beautiful gray eyes I’ve ever seen. He was talking to the Mom, mid-forties, fair and tall. She had long brown hair and eyes of a gentle, laughing green.<\/p>\n

She said, “That’s what the sign says.”<\/p>\n

“But my whole life I thought it was called the Pipsqueak Freeway. That’s what Dad always called it. That’s what he still<\/i> calls it.”<\/p>\n

The Mom was laughing silently, trying very hard not to laugh out loud.<\/p>\n

“It’s not funny! I asked him why he called it that and he said he named it after the mayor.”<\/p>\n

The Mom was still trying not to laugh.<\/p>\n

“Oh, sure. Very funny. Every day after school we used to stop at the Post Office, and I was seven or eight before I found out that it’s not really called the Edgar Allan Poe Stoffice. I didn’t even know who Edgar Allan Poe was.”<\/i><\/p>\n

The Mom was stopped short by her laughter. She stood there behind her shopping cart trying to catch her breath.<\/p>\n

“You think it’s funny. I think it’s funny sometimes, too. But I never know when he tells me the name of something if that’s the real name, or if it’s just something he made up.”<\/p>\n

“You<\/i> have a lot of room to talk,” said the Mom. “The other day I said I needed to get four quarters and you spent the rest of the day telling people that I want to put warts on forks.”<\/p>\n

“The Fork Warters, semi-notorious villains from the nether reaches. Or maybe they’re just a really bad rock band.”<\/p>\n

“You see? You sound just like him. Where is your father, anyway?”<\/p>\n

“He took off. He said he had Santaclaustrophobia.”<\/p>\n

The Mom said nothing, just smiled and pushed her cart along the aisle.<\/p>\n

They were Christmas shopping at Costco, which used to be called The Price Club before some genius decided that made too much sense.<\/p>\n

Do you know about Costco? It’s Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story “Okay, so one day we’re driving, and we’re just about to get on the freeway, and I look up and the sign says, ‘Squaw Peak Freeway.’” The Kid said that. Maybe eleven years old, tall and thin. Tousled brown hair and the most beautiful gray eyes I’ve ever seen. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-casual-friday","7":"category-egoism-in-action","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":596,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/596\/how-do-you-sneak-up-on-a-freeway\/","url_meta":{"origin":780,"position":0},"title":"How do you sneak up on a Freeway . . . ?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Reflecting upon today's Arizona Republic column, here is a story I've been sitting on all week:Work is under way to build a bridge on Cotton Lane and expand the road from Maricopa County 85 to Estrella Parkway. The project will produce a half-mile, six-lane bridge over the Gila River complete\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":673,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/673\/growth-news-a-big-shoe-drops-in-goodyear\/","url_meta":{"origin":780,"position":1},"title":"Growth news: A big shoe drops in Goodyear . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Growth news abounds in today's Arizona Republic. A new shopping center along the northern frontier of Phoenix. Accelerated improvements along the route of the SR-303 freeway in Surprise. And, in Goodyear, plans for a massive expansion of the city, along with a big told-ya-so for Greg. The map at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":648,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/648\/untying-the-loop-202-knot-if-only-they-let-me-draw-the-freeway-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":780,"position":2},"title":"Untying the Loop 202 knot: If only they let me draw the freeway maps . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Our friends in the Gila River Indian Community have elected to negotiate on the location of the Loop 202 Freeway:In a surprise about-face, the Gila River Indian Community will talk to state and federal officials about the prospect of building the South Mountain Freeway on reservation land, possibly sparing hundreds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1148,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1148\/buyer-representation-fells-another-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":780,"position":3},"title":"Buyer representation fells another one","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ya see?! We should be listening to Russell Shaw. You can list all day and all night, and never be too busy to scratch your nose. It's that chasing around with buyers that downs perfectly good Realtors. Cathy had a buyer-rich day. A final walk-through on a new build. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5407,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5407\/how-will-the-party-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":780,"position":4},"title":"How Will the Party End?","author":"Thomas Hall","date":"November 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Growing up as a kid, I remember my mom and dad throwing a lot of parties. They were the kind of folks who liked to \"entertain\". It seems nobody entertains like my parents these days. It was usually on a Friday or Saturday night - my mom would order pizza\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17096,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17096\/a-fun-fact-about-ibuyers-every-buy-box-is-redlining\/","url_meta":{"origin":780,"position":5},"title":"A fun fact about #iBuyers? Every buy-box is redlining.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The image is a map of Zillow's sold iBuyer homes in the densest parts of Metropolitan Phoenix. See that Madonana-like shape running West from the I-17 Freeway. Looks like a pregnant single-mom, doesn't it? The poster-child of fair-housing law, right there on the map. Looks like redlining, doesn't it? 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