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Where the Iron Horse meets the Carriage Horse |
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About Us |
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We have been living in Arizona a really long time. But, no, like the majority of Arizona residents, we were not born here. Peter's father could not
join the armed forces in World War II because of health problems,
so he decided to leave the family's home in the New York City area
and take a job in Bisbee, Arizona. He worked for the Phelps
Dodge copper mining company as a doctor, to help replace those who
had Mary Jane's family was from Ohio and moved to Arizona in 1946. After the death of her grandmother and looking for a better climate for her mother's chronic arthritis, they first stopped in Tucson. Later, they chose Douglas as their permanent home. They too, stayed in Douglas until near the end of their lives, during which time they came to live with us in Phoenix.
Like many a romantic small town story, we met as youngsters. Mary Jane came over to play with Peter's sister, Lani, who was in the same year in school. However we didn't start dating until college at the University of Arizona and didn't get married until both of us had completed our master's degrees. Both of our passions
were established during our youths in Douglas. Douglas was
the center of a historic ranching area, hosting traditional
rodeos, dances and even saw ranch hands occasionally riding Peter, on the other hand,
must have been fascinated with trains from almost the beginning.
The only explanation his father could give was that while living
on Long Island, his grandfather would leave every Monday morning
on the steam train for his doctor's office and house on Manhattan
to return on Friday afternoon. Initially baby Peter was terrified
by the puffing, hissing, shrieking locomotive. That lasted
about six weeks, and by then he could hardly wait Like many women of that time, Mary Jane went into teaching after finishing her bachelor's degree, taking a job in Garden Grove, California. Meanwhile Peter was in graduate school studying for his degree in city planning. After a year of teaching, Mary Jane also came back to graduate school for her masters degree. Meanwhile Peter, finishing his degree, took his first job as a city planner in Toledo, Ohio. Now that didn't excite Mary Jane very much, as Toledo was the very town her family had moved away from to get to the sunshine of Arizona. But, Peter settled in and got to know Mary Jane's relatives. After Mary Jane finished graduate school we married and she reluctantly returned to her roots in Toledo. While living in Toledo, we adopted
our children and followed the path of many young families - renting
a house, buying our first house and then buying a second, larger one, in Toledo's
suburb of Ottawa Hills. Mary Jane taught math in the Maumee, Ohio high school,
then settled in to raise the four children. Peter worked
at the city- Mary Jane kept reminding Peter that they really belonged in Arizona, so when we learned of a job opportunity with the City of Phoenix, he was strongly encouraged to apply. That resulted in the family relocating to Phoenix in 1975 where we lived until retirement. First locating in the central part of the city, the kids went through grammar and high school. Mary Jane's interest in horses was rekindled as a friend located an available horse. That part of central Phoenix still hosted horse owners, so a part of the back yard was converted into a small horse stall. And it wasn't long before a second horse, a six month old colt, arrived and was placed in a stable on an adjoining property. It wasn't easy to ride in the central part of the city, however, and Mary Jane and her friend often trailered into the nearby desert mountain preserves. That situation led to a suggestion that we might want to look for land which was more open and suitable for horse owners. Soon we found a five acre parcel of open desert on the side of South Mountain just below Phoenix's largest mountain park. We designed and built a house with horse facilities and a full basement for Peter's trains. As the kids entered high school, Mary Jane decided to re-enter the workforce and went back to college for courses in the emerging computer programming field. Finishing her training, she also ended up with the City of Phoenix as a programmer until her retirement, twenty years later. The basement provided the opportunity for Peter to start building his ultimate train layout, featuring prewar trains, modern trains and classic trains made during the early postwar years. The layouts were fully sceniced and operational and eventually were featured in Arizona Highways as well as Classic Toy Trains magazine. Meanwhile, Mary Jane discovered the
sport of competitive carriage driving. Soon, the horses were
Sadly, in the late '90s, we lost two of our four children to accidents. With retirement approaching we decided that we were not leaving Arizona. However, we wanted a more temperate climate than Phoenix. That led us to the Prescott area which is in the state's central highlands. We purchased a twenty acre plot of land in the high desert grasslands of the Big Chino Valley. We are in the small, unincorporated community of Paulden, about 25 miles north of Prescott and an equal distance south of Interstate 40, the old Route 66.
By the way, Nick is shown here at the Treasure House, a model train store we owned for five years and which he managed for us. (Every model train fan secretly wants to own his own train store.) Train stores don't make any money, but it was a great experience for Nick and Peter.
It took until we were in our middle '60s, but we are grandparents. Pat's wife, Yvette, gave birth in late May, 2004, to a healthy baby girl, Brynn. And in July 2007 grandson Hayden joined the world. Oh yes, there are more on the Atonna Family photo album page.
Brynn with Pat
Hayden with Grandma As you might imagine, grandparenthood has initiated more changes in our lives. The most significant was the purchase of a small townhouse in Tempe late in 2004. Although we never figured we would again become residents of the Phoenix area, being closer to the kids and grandkids proved the wisdom of that decision. Many holidays, doctors visits, meetings and special events again take place in the Valley of the Sun.
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been
drafted. This was in 1943 and Peter was three years old and
his sister, Yolanda (Lani), was two. After a year of trying
to climb the stairs leading to homes, which in Bisbee were mainly
located on streetless hillsides, Peter's father decided to set up
his practice in a more level area. He relocated the family
a year later to the copper smelting town of Douglas, 25 miles
east of Bisbee.
Douglas,
in those days, was a thriving city. Located in an agricultural
valley and on the Mexican border, it was the commercial center for
southeast Arizona. But the main reason for its existence was
the huge copper smelter and western regional offices for the Phelps
Dodge Corporation. It had a thriving downtown, with department
stores and movie theaters. It had main line passenger service
on the Southern Pacific as well as bus and American Airlines plane
service. It was a great town to grow up in during the late
1940's and 1950's. Peter's parents bought a house and his
father lived there until his death almost twenty five years later.
His brother, Arthur, was born there and returned after college to
practice law until relocating to Phoenix, as have so many in Arizona.
into
town for Saturday night. So it was not unusual for many grade
school kids to have horses. As several of Mary Jane's friends
got their horses, she had to have one also. Flame, a mustang/thoroughbred
cross and was her first entry into the equestrian world. Later,
Flame's offspring, Flicker
,
carried Mary Jane through high school days. But after that,
actual horses took a back seat to college and raising a family.
More on that later.
till
the excitement of the trip to the Long Island Railroad station.
His interest grew until a couple of Christmases brought Marx wind
up trains and finally a genuine Lionel electric train arrived on Christmas
in 1948. The rest is history.
county
planning department and later as a consultant with an architectural-engineering firm.
During those years, Mary Jane could only enjoy horses through magazines.
But Peter was busily building model train layouts in every house
they lived in as well as getting involved in local clubs and learning
train repairs for a local hobby store.
being
trained to carriages and much of her free time was spent at local
and regional competitions. We both became active in organizing and running
the statewide carriage driving club and have helped to host a wide
variety of competitions and activities.
As
retirement neared, we started construction on our "complex" with a guest house to live in until the main house was built.
A horse barn followed so that soon after Mary Jane's retirement,
she could move in permanently and not have to endure any more 100 degree Phoenix
days. Peter stayed in the Valley, working under contract with
his Phoenix Rio Salado project until a major operation told him it, too, was
time to move north. Sale of our Phoenix properties allowed
construction to start on the main house, which again featured
a basement for trains, this time even larger than the one Phoenix.
And with twenty acres we could construct all the necessary training
facilities for carriage competitions.
Both sons, Pat and Nick, remain in the Phoenix area. Nick manages the wine department of a Cost Plus store while Pat, is a 
manager
at a clothing discount store.
Mary Jane is kept busy with three horses and
her carriages preparing for the several local and
regional competitions in which she participates. Today, Peter has a basement full
of trains, local train club friends and lots of trips to view or
ride on them. He even worked a year as a Fireman and Brakeman on the Grand Canyon Railroad - the ultimate dream of a train fan!
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Peter & Mary Jane Atonna
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