Desert Messenger

14 www.DesertMessenger.com April 3, 2019 Quartzsite Improvement Assoc. Part IV Arizona West RV Day/Night Shade REPAIR RICH • 714-887-3953 MOTORHOMES / 5TH WHEELS / TRAILERS Blinds Too Tight or Too Loose? We Can Adjust & Repair Same Day Service in Most Cases Very Affordable! Bonded & Insured Licensed AZ 16-09-52032 Remove • Restring • Install MOBILE SERVICE RV There Yet? Facebook RVerTV YouTube's # 1 RV Channel RVerTV.tv RV There Yet? Email: rvertv@gmail.com By Jackie Deal How many of you caught it? I did it again! I goofed! The last sen- tence in the penultimate (see I do know some big words) paragraph of the last Quartzsite Improvement Association (QIA) article said: "The QIA's mission then and now is to work for the betterment, advance- ment, and BEATIFICATION of the town of Quartzsite." OOPs! I double-checked; the mistake is mine, I can't blame the newspaper. Google was no help: "beatifi cation is the recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name." Now I've heard Quartzsite referred to as "God's waiting room" but that wasn't what I had in mind. Of course, the word I wanted was: "beautifi ca- tion." No excuse. Ever notice how we read what we expect to see? I read somewhere that if the fi rst and last letters of a word are correct that most people will read them, in con- text, as the writer intended. Let's get down to business: the intent of these articles was to intro- duce readers to WHAT the QIA is, not to give you all a big belly laugh. In the fi rst two articles I reviewed a bit of the QIA's history relying heav- ily on Mary Allen's wonderful book, "QIA: How Come?" It's available in the library and I highly recommend it. Article III tried to explain why a raise in dues was due for the fi rst time in 43 years. Did it succeed? The intent of this article is to pres- ent a little more history and then prepare to delve into some of the QIA offerings. It seems Quartzsite has fought - we won't call it prog- ress, let's call it "modernization"- from the very beginning. Mary Allen's comments are too good to paraphrase, so here is exactly what she wrote: "Old Timers fought prog- ress from the beginning of the: "in- vasion." "It will bring high taxes," was the cry. A story goes that one Old Timer in Quartzsite since 1947, had prop- erty on the highway with some din- ky motel units and a gas pump. He was "agin" strangers settling here. When a car drove into his station for gas—before serving it—the Old Timer asked the driver, "Are you going on through?" If the answer was "no"—no gas. "In the early days, there were no telephones. Then the town got three phones. At the service station even- tually there was a pay phone.—with THIRTEEN customers on the line." So can we conclude, not ALL prog- ress is bad? Now I'm with those who oppose turning Quartzsite into "the Las Vegas of the Desert"; what a horrible thought. Are there re- ally two Quartzsites? The Summer Quartzsite where hardy souls tough out temperatures almost unbearable only to have the Winter Folks storm the town and take over. Stores and restaurants, closed for the hot sea- son, open. Entertainment, shelved for the summer, reappears. And the QIA slumbering on its empty lot, comes alive. And we, the Winter Folks, in our unhumble way, swagger around wondering why some of the Sum- mer Folk (Old Timers) might resent us. I'm a Winter Folk, I do identify with them but I also try to under- stand the feelings of the Summer Folk, (All Year Round Folk), who probably feel shoved aside and maybe even trampled on. Maybe I can't change those feel- ings but I'd like to reassure you that the Winter Folk appreciate you, the Summer Folk, for opening your hearts and homes to us. And since I'm writing about the QIA (suppos- edly) I'd like to reassure all that the QIA is interested in the Betterment of Quartzsite for EVERYONE. So with apologies for the "beatifi ca- tion" of Quartzsite and humble as- surance that the QIA would like to be for EVERYONE, I'll wind this up. More to come. www.facebook.com/ DesertMessengerNews

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