I had a big surprise from my son, Brent, on the July 4 weekend.

I was sitting in the living room of our Las Vegas home watching the Wimbledon tennis competition when I got a signal from Diane to turn around.

I turned my chair and there was Brent in all his six-foot, five‑inch glory, looking down at me with a big grin.

“Brent, is that really you?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “I made sure I had all of my ads in by this morning so I could come see you. It’s a holiday weekend. And here, this is for you. Happy early birthday!”

He handed me an envelope that had a card inside, with two tickets to the new “Elvis” movie.

“I can still get you a ticket if you would like to go,” he said to Diane.

She said no several more times, saying “You don’t get many chances of doing something together, just the two of you.”

Finally, she gave in and said she would go.

To close out this part of my column, we all loved the movie. The young man who played Elvis did a remarkably good job. I understand he did all of the singing and he certainly had all of the King’s moves.

And Tom Hanks should get at least an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Elvis’s manager, Col. Tom Parker.

Speaking of special birthdays, Diane and I will both be celebrating birthdays in a few days. She’ll be 69 on the 16th and I’ll be 75 on the 18th.

Now let’s get back to what was going on in 1984, the Fountain Hills History Lesson for this week.

A record-smashing year for construction combined with the town’s growing pains and controversies is how the new community could be summed up for 1984.

Building permits for the year topped $18 million in valuation, a new record. Not surprisingly, the School District saw more growth in 1984, with the student population rising 10% from the start of school in the fall to Christmas.

With the growth, a task force was formed to find ways to alleviate the overcrowding. Eventually a new bond issue passed, allowing the construction of McDowell Mountain Elementary.

The growth also attracted some positive publicity for the community.

A Phoenix Gazette article called Fountain Hills one of the newest destinations for “yuppies” in the Valley. Because of the remote location of the town in the early 1970s, most of the residents were retirees. But as the Valley grew and younger urban professionals started looking for suburbs to move to, an influx of younger people started making the trek to the suddenly not-so-far-away town.

In May, a community pioneer named Oliver Johnson passed away. He loved electronics and he installed the first satellite dish in Fountain Hills. He became a close friend. We would have conversations about anything from outer space to politics to wildlife. As a member of the Noon Kiwanis, he initiated the Citizen of the Year Award. After his passing, the award was named in his honor.

I was honored to receive the award that first year that it had been renamed for him. That 1984 award was a result of my volunteer work with the noon Kiwanis, my second year as president of the Chamber of Commerce and I was secretary of the Fountain Hills Little League.

Well, that’s about where I have to stop for this week. I’ll resume talking about 1984 next time.