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My last column reported that three hundred transplants per day arrive in Arizona. And each one has a unique story to tell. Where does everyone come from? And why are they here? Inquiring minds want to know. Or at least mine does. .jpg)
So I am inviting readers to share their stories. Tell us what motivated you to move to Arizona. When did you arrive? Did you have a job before you got here? Are you glad you did it?
Some transplants have shady pasts. I mean, it just makes sense that in an area full of newcomers, there are going to be a certain number of them who left their homes for less than stellar reasons. You can always tell the ones who did by the vague answers they give when asked why they moved. And by their shifty eyes.
But I shouldn't talk. I know people thought the same about us. As I have mentioned before, when you move to the desert from New Jersey and have an Italian surname, people will speculate. We found ourselves living among individuals who had the same last names as the families I grew up watching on old TV sitcoms. Names you could pronounce without asking how to spell them, like Cooper, Wilson or Sanders. And many people in Arizona had never met a real live Italian person before. (Or an Eye-talian as some would say.)
Add in the fact that our reason for moving did not involve a job but was simply a desire to live in a warm place, and naturally they assumed the FBI was involved and that we were in witness protection. It didn't help that shortly after we arrived our well-known Arizona neighbor Sammy "The Bull" Gravano made the news. He was put into witness protection after testifying against crime boss John Gotti, but left the program and moved to Tempe, Arizona in 1995, while his wife operated a restaurant in Scottsdale. But he had a hard time living the quiet life and was arrested in 2000 on drug-related charges. The surrounding buzz, along with the growing popularity of "The Sopranos" in the years following our move, did nothing to help our credibility.
Anyway, that's Sammy's story, and let me emphasize that I only know what was in the news. We're not personal friends or anything, okay?
But what about you? What's your story? I invite you to email it to me at srienzo@cox.net and write "transplant story" in the subject line. There is no prize except the chance to have it appear in a future column. But what could be grander than that?
And don't worry; real names need not be used. If you want you can use a nickname as we sometimes do in New Jersey. Like "Old Blue Eyes".
Or "Tony No Thumbs".
Feel free to take this brief but fun quiz entitled "Why are you here?" to find out whether you're a newbie or a native, or somewhere in between.
Coming up next: this transplant's story.
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