Here’s a reminder for you to take advantage of our special subscription offer.

If you are used to picking up copy of The Times at the store, we thank you for your business. But from now until June 30 you can make getting all of the news of your community easier by subscribing.

And we’ve made it easier by lowering the annual subscription rate from $42 to $25. That’s less than half the newsstand cost!

We’ve discounted the rate to get more of you to join our family of readers. It’s a 40 percent discount in observance of our 40th anniversary.

Our first edition was delivered on June 27, 1974. We will have a special commemorative section in the June 25th edition that will have stories on how the newspaper got started and evolved over the years, feature stories on the staff members, awards, ways to advertise and a year–by-year review of the history of the community.

And next week, I’ll be giving you even more reasons for being a member of The Times family of subscribers.

-------

We had an interesting person visit the museum last week.

Patti Scott called the museum and said she was visiting in the community and had heard we have a statue of Jack Swilling on display. Historical Society President Debbie Skehen answered her email telling her she would make arrangements for a tour. It turns out Scott is a great granddaughter of Swilling. Her grandmother married his youngest son.

Swilling is recognized as the founder of Phoenix. He dug out old canals that had

been created along the Salt River centuries earlier by the Hohokam Native Americans. He grew hay which was used to feed the military horses at Fort McDowell.

Patti liked the display. She lives in Discovery Bay, Calif., which is near San Francisco.

-------

I’m sure you heard about the wildfires last week in the San Diego area.

One of them was in Carlsbad, where my daughter, Holly, and her family live.

“It happened so fast,” Holly said. “I was talking with a potential photography client. I looked out the back window and saw this weird orange glow. I went outside and saw flames and a lot of black smoke from a wildfire just about a mile away.”

Shortly after, they were being notified that they had to evacuate. Holly called her husband, Bruce, and told him to pick up their two girls at their pre-school.

Holly started packing her van with their computers and cameras, grabbed a change of clothes for everybody and family photo albums. And of course, Chloe, their white lab,

As she pulled away from her house she could see a large black cloud of smoke not far away to the north.

“Oh no,” she thought. “We don’t have a chance with fires raging on both sides.” She looked back at her home with the prospect of never seeing it again.

As she drove to meet Bruce and the girls, she thought about other items she should have taken from the home. They included many of her souvenirs and autographed photos from her 15-year Broadway dance career in New York City.

And oh yes, five-year-old daughter Brooke was angry that her mom left all of her Barbies behind.

After spending the night in a hotel, they were allowed to return to their home the next day, which was not touched by the fires.

They came within a half mile on the south and two blocks to the north.

“It was a scary situation,” Holly said. “I’ll be sure to check on our fire insurance coverage this week.”