photo by curtis riggs

Victoria’s stores a dream for treasure hunters

Four open in Los Portales Mall

By Curtis Riggs

    CAREFREE – Los Portales Mall at the intersection of Ho- Hum and Easy streets has become a treasure hunter’s paradise thanks to the four new Victoria’s outlets.
    Victoria Johnston opened Victoria’s Attic, Victoria’s Closet, Victoria’s Hidden Treasures and Victoria’s Book Bin last month as a way to help shoppers and people who have homes and garages full of stuff others would consider treasures. Ironically enough, the stores are named after Johnston’s grandmother not herself.
    Johnston is also helping local non-profit groups, with each of the stores supporting a different group. For example, she partners with the local Soroptimists of the Saguaro Foothills group on the sales at the Book Bin.
    “These groups need to make money and many people are looking for a good deal,” she said about offering her consignment services and “serving two needs.”
    The Book Bin came about because a man donated 20,000 books to her the first week she opened her Victoria’s stores.
    “I opened the doors and said ‘let’s see what you have’ and people brought in all kinds of stuff,” she said about her early experiences with people in the Desert Foothills.
    Since opening she has received office furniture, dishes, collectibles, artwork, grandfather clocks, fox fur coats and other eclectic items.
    “There are many treasure hunters out there looking for unique items,” she said about John F. Kennedy campaign buttons, Life magazines from the 1950s and a beautiful wedding dress.
    In Victoria’s Attic ladies can find leather coats, Ann Taylor suits and other nice clothing for a fraction of their original cost.
    “When times are iffy, you can sure stretch your dollar in here,” Johnston said.
    The Victoria’s stores are located at the mall at 99 Easy Street. They are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Call 602-361-4010 or visit www.victoriasatticconsign ment.com for more information.

Hugh Downs

Hugh Downs to go ‘On the Trail with Hube Yates’

Saturday, May 3 at Cave Creek Museum

By Curtis Riggs

    CAVE CREEK – Well-known television personality and 30-year Carefree resident Hugh Downs will talk about his years in the area and some of the most interesting people he’s met when he speaks Saturday at the Cave Creek Museum.
    Downs will talk about his old friend Hube Yates and tell other stories about Cave Creek at 2 p.m on Saturday. The museum is located on the intersection of Basin Road and Skyline Drive, at 6140 Skyline Drive.
    Hube Yates owned a riding stable in Cave Creek for many years. He operated out of the Sierra Vista Ranch at the end of Fleming Springs Road. Yates was a bona fide Western pioneer, former Phoenix firefighter and preacher who stabled the “happiest horses in town” according to advertisements in the old Black Mountain News. Yates used a hackamore, a bitless bridle.
    Downs said Yates was also a “pillar of the community.
    “If he hadn’t been known as a legendary Western pioneer who lived to see a man walk on the moon, an eloquent preacher, stockman and firefighter he would have been known as a great American humorist,” Downs said about the friend he met when both participated in the Cave Creek Centennial Parade in 1970. “He would never have been known as the strong silent type. Strong yes, but silent – hardly.”
    One of Downs’ favorite stories is about riding with the legendary Cave Creek stockman/horseman on a nine-day cattle drive moving the herd down from Heber.
    “That was really something.
    Sleeping on the ground became a way of life,” Downs said about the cattle drive. “At the end I thought why can’t life always be like this, but then I realized that I needed to make a living.”
    Downs even napped in the saddle when he spent 10 hours straight in it on this trail ride.
    “The horse just plodded along,” he said about his nap.
    Downs and his wife Ruth moved to Carefree in 1969 and lived there for 30 years. They lived near Stagecoach Pass and Mule Train Road. The Downs will soon celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary.
    The Downs moved to Paradise Valley when Hugh started putting in more time on television and thus needed to fly frequently.
    “I loved it up there very much,” he said about his time in the Desert Foothills. “The only reason we moved was I was getting clobbered by television and spending all of my time on airplanes.”
    Downs was so fond of the local legend Yates that he wrote the forward for Gene Garrison’s book about Yates “From Thunder to Breakfast.”
    Downs called the 1970 Centennial Parade “an interesting episode” because his wife rode sidesaddle the entire parade on a horse and saddle provided by Yates.
    He talked about things not having not changed much in the 38 years of Cave Creek parades, pointing out that Cave Creek Road was under construction in 1970 because medians were being installed in the center of the road.
    “The road was like it was 100 years ago,” he said about Cave Creek Road being unpaved because of recent construction.
    The Hugh Downs “On the Trail with Hube Yates” event costs $20, with reservations required. Call the museum at 480-488-2764.