(Tom) Hello, and welcome to an all-new episode of the Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

And today we're joining you from Udall Park on Tucson's East Side.

And this is why we love living in Southern Arizona.

You can go swimming now or take a short drive up Mount Lemmon and go skiing.

And you know, our culture is just as diverse and interesting as our environment.

And today's stories explore those riches.

So stay tuned.

[Music] We'll bring you the tale of a gas station that spans decades, generations and nations.

Thank you for everything.

Thank you.

(Arnaldo) I'm very grateful to my customers.

I owe them a lot.

(Tom) Celebrate 75 years of singing in community with Tucson Masterworks Chorale.

(Jo-Ann) The reason I like this course is the people.

It's like a family.

(Tom) The community food bank fills a gap as housing prices continue to rise.

(Margarita) Everybody should know about this place because it is a lot of help for people that need, you know, help.

(Tom) And we'll hit the slopes right here in the Sonoran Desert.

(Anthony) It has been magical up here.

I'm wearing, as you can see, just a flannel.

I'm not even wearing gloves.

(Tom) Until recently, a gas station on Tucson's east side was a place of destiny and legacy.

You see, for nearly six decades, Arnaldo Mendez Sr. ran the A&M Shell Service Station, which was a beacon in the community and an immigrant's success story.

But now, at 88 years old, he and his son bid farewell to their beloved station, and we were there for their last few days of full service.

[MUSIC] [Phone dialing] [Bell dinging] (Arnaldo Jr. on phone) Ben, good morning, Arnold A and M Shell.

Just wanted to remind you today is our last day.

(Arnaldo Jr.) Well, it's the end of an era.

It is the closing of what used to be something very common, which was service stations.

So it is the termination of a business that has existed since 1965 that my father started.

(Arnaldo Sr.) Well, in those days to open up the service station was fairly easy because the company will provide you with the merchandise like the tire, batteries, oil, gas, and you pay as you sell it.

It was a good relationship with Gulf Oil and myself.

We came from Cuba in 1962.

I had lot a problem with the government.

I was put in prison 29 days, long days, and I was working with the Methodist Church in Cuba.

Then we arrived in Miami where we left hell to be in heaven.

Catalina United Methodist Church was our sponsor to Tucson.

(Analdo Jr.) I look at my father's quest and story and I believe that it is a quintessential immigrant story.

(Analdo Sr.) It was very difficult because first of all we didn't have the money.

I was working at St. Mary's making a dollar nine an hour in those days, but I was happy because I was doing something for myself, not depend on the government.

There was a lot of problems.

I used to go and talk to different clubs and churches about the communists and the liberals and somebody used to threaten me that they were going to do something to my family or myself.

Of course, after coming from a country that killed you, if you say anything, I wasn't afraid, but they set the station on fire in 1969 and I lost everything again.

I knew it was going to be hard, but I bounced it right back.

(Arnaldo Jr.) I think that he sets an example to say, immigrants are important and we need to bring these folks in and give them an opportunity.

(Arnaldo Sr.) I always had a lot of respect for this country.

I tell people that United States is a country next to heaven.

It's the best country in the world.

(Arnaldo Jr.) The generation of my father knew nothing but to work.

And so he set a high, high standard.

And I believe that he is admired for that.

(Chuck) Arnold is a one in a million type guy.

He's a very special person.

I've become a friend with him.

I think he's my friend and I think he provides a great service.

(Gloria) It's gonna be sad.

We've been friends 34 years.

I've seen the kids grow up.

They've helped me after my husband passed away, purchased a car for me, Junior, because I was on my own.

So they've always helped me.

(Patricia) I first came in the nineties.

After my husband died, I can't remember exactly the situation, but I needed some tires.

I didn't have the military paycheck, hadn't come.

And he said, "I'll give you four tires.

You can pay me when you return."

Who does that?

(Arnaldo Jr.) The stories I'm hearing people come in to say goodbye and wish him well.

What they're all telling me are things that he used to do to help them, but it was a service to the community and the full service he took seriously.

(Arnaldo Sr.) Sometimes you go to the service station and nobody even come out and help you if they need help.

And one of the things that I've done is try to emphasize and help people, especially the older people that are used to the old times.

(Gloria) It's gonna be hard, I think, and all the old timers that they take care of.

(Chuck) I have lost a leg.

And so it's basically is good insurance for me to come here.

It just eliminates the chance of a fall.

(Patricia) I wanted to get my last fill up of gas and I wanted Arnold to do it, but Junior did it.

But he did call his dad over, so I got to give him a hug and, you know.

Which I teared up.

(Voice off camera) What makes you tear up about coming to a gas station to get a fill up?

(Patricia) Because this isn't like anything else in Tucson.

I mean, they just, they treat you like family.

Full service means full service.

Check the tires, wash your windows, check the oil.

(Arnaldo Sr.) Well, I think that it's crucial to have that relationship with people.

To know who they are.

All that is changing a lot in this business.

Changing a lot.

But that is the way it looks like the things are going in life.

I'm gonna be 88 years old.

And I look and I say, until when can I work?

And especially take care of my wife and to be with her.

(Gloria) Happy retirement!

(Arnaldo Jr.) I hope that he can look on it positively and feel satisfied that he's accomplished something, you know, beautiful and that he's provided a great service for all these years.

(Arnaldo Sr.) That is gonna be hard because I'm up at five o'clock in the morning, even on Sunday.

And now I guess I gotta go to different direction.

And just relax.

(Woman) Thank you for everything.

(Arnaldo Jr.) Thank you!

(Arnaldo Sr.) I would say that I'm gonna miss the customers.

Yes, that relationship with them.

I'm very grateful to my customers.

I owe them a lot.

And I want them to know that.

(Arnaldo Jr.) It's a bittersweet experience, but I am so grateful that my father gets to see it while he's alive.

(Man) Nice to see you.

Be good.

(Arnaldo Sr.) Thank you.

(Patricia) They will be missed.

They really will.

Everybody will find somewhere to go, but you can't replace this.

You know, 59 years, you can't replace this.

(Tom) The Tucson Masterworks Chorale is a place of camaraderie and delight for singers of all ages and skill levels.

And this spring they celebrate 75 melodic years here in Southern Arizona.

So we caught up with a couple of current members who talk about how singing brings them joy, whether it's in the shower or on the stage.

♪ This is where we belong ♪ Mother Earth who feeds us all ♪ ♪ Takes our roots no matter how long ♪ ♪ She's whispering This is where you belong ♪ Music is life, it's the soul, it's the thing that brings people together, it's the thing that creates love.

♪ Dramatic singing I have been a singer in my car in my shower for many many years.

♪ Singing up and down scales And a lot of times when you're singing, whether it's with a group or just by yourself or in the shower or whatever, it just kind of feels good.

♪ Percussion and soft vocalizing ♪ (Linda) I love to sing in community, I love to blend my voice with other people's voices to make beautiful music.

♪ Percussion and soft vocalizing ♪ (Dale) I love singing with Tucson Masterworks Chorale.

I've been a member since 2010.

♪ Percussion and soft vocalizing ♪ (Stephanie) I always sang in choruses when I was younger and I appreciate that.

I really enjoy the interaction with the other people.

[ Soft murmuring, oboe playing softly ♪] (Norb) What's great about singing in a choir is that you're just in sync with other people.

♪ Dramatic strings and voices ♪ (Norb) Studies have shown that it's really beneficial to your health.

It keeps your mind sharp.

It's good for your breathing, good for your socialization.

There's no downside to being in a choir.

(Dale) The repertoire that we sing is early classical, sometimes romantic, sometimes a little Baroque.

I love the harmonies and the melodies and the different languages that we get to sing.

♪ Soft voices singing (Kathy) After the pandemic, when we didn't see people for a long time, it was wonderful to be able to get back where you can meet new people and know that you're going to meet them every Monday night and do something that you really love which is singing... ...and we have snacks.

♪ Vocalizing (Jo-Ann) Tucson Masterworks Chorale is an old chorus that's been around for 75 years.

The reason that I like this chorus is the people.

It's like a family.

(Norb) Tucson Masterworks Chorale has a mission of including everyone that wants to sing.

You do not need to be an experienced musician.

I had not sung for 30 years.

The last time I sang was in a choir in college.

♪ Strings playing softly ♪ (Mike) I like doing crossword puzzles and jigsaw puzzles and learning this type of music is kind of like doing an auditory jigsaw puzzle.

You have to figure out what those little dots on the page sound like.

♪ Singing in operatic voice ♪ (Luke) I love music.

I love to sing.

I know that others love music and love to sing.

And for me to be in a capacity where I can bring people together to do that, I think that's a beautiful thing.

(Luke) In fourth grade I started in percussion.

I was a drummer and then I moved on to piano and then on to singing and then on composition.

It's changed so many times and I still joke and say I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up.

Right now I'm quite happy as a choral conductor, but we'll see what the next chapter holds.

Jessica and I have proudly been involved with the Tucson Masterworks Chorale for over two years.

(Kyle) Anytime we have the ability to share our gift or share our passion, it's always just a fun time.

It gives us a lot of energy.

If it's too emotional, I end up getting overwhelmed singing with her.

♪ Singing softly (Kyle) ♪ Do you hear me?

I'm talking to you ♪ ♪ Across the water, across the ♪ ♪ deep blue ocean under the open sky ♪ ♪ Oh my, baby I'm trying ♪ Boy, I hear you in my dreams ♪ ♪ I feel you whisper across the sea ♪ ♪ I keep you with me in my heart ♪ ♪ You make it easier when life gets hard ♪ ♪ Lucky I'm in love with my best friend ♪ ♪ Lucky to have been where I have been ♪ ♪ Lucky to be coming home again ♪ ♪ Ooh Ooh Yeah.

Yeah!

That happens every time.

If this was a solo, you could totally take a breath there, but we can't just acquire it.

Go from the top.

♪ Staccato vocalizing ♪ (Luke) It's my responsibility to choose the repertoire.

Where we're going to perform, what instrumentation we're going to use, who our soloists are going to be.

So it's just the all around all encompassing artistic vision of the production.

♪ Soft percussion plays ♪ For the Tucson Masterworks Corral's 75th anniversary, we tried to pick some music that was based around the years 1948.

That's when the chorus started.

So we selected a few pieces.

All of them have some kind of relation to that year.

And one of them, for instance is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera because Lloyd Webber was born in 1948.

So we're going to be doing.

♪ Beginning Phantom of the Opera ♪ ♪ He's there, the Phantom of the Opera ♪ And I prove there that you don't have to be a great singer to be in the choir.

♪ Singing Carmina Burana ♪ (Luke) The second half of our concert is the real draw for singers.

We wanted to do something that we knew would draw a big audience, new singers would really enjoy.

So we chose Carmina Burana.

♪ Playing Carmina Burana ♪ Choir sings dramatically (Norb) Come and celebrate our 75th anniversary with us.

♪ Song ends, applause ♪ (Tom) For more information about Tucson Masterworks Chorale and their 75th anniversary concert on April 21st, their website is tucsonmasterworkschorale.org.

their website is tucsonmasterworkschorale.org.

The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona provides a number of services including emergency food assistance, community garden plots, a culinary training program, and a farmer's market.

Now they're battling hunger, and by doing that, they're building a healthier hunger-free tomorrow.

This next story is a continuation of our ongoing series examining causes and effects of the housing crisis called "Where to Live," which will run every week from April through May.

[MUSIC] (Tom) I've been volunteering here for a while and yeah, it'll be 15 years in the first part of June.

Wherever they need help, that's normally where I go.

Lately, it's been here in the distribution area.

(Jo Ann) I come down here two days out of the week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

And the reason why that I'm here is because I was sitting at home bored, so I love to volunteer and fellowship and work with people.

What it feels like, it gets me out of self.

And I can give back that was given to me, you know.

(Alan) They usually give you two boxes, one canned and one fresh.

And then some bread.

Everybody's really nice and helpful here.

(Malea) You can hear all the work happening in the background right now.

That's really to build our food boxes.

Last year, I think we provided over 400,000 of those boxes.

We could not do this work without the support of our volunteers.

(Jo Ann) You know, I used to go to food banks also, a lot of facilities.

At the time, I was homeless.

And I know how it is, being out there on the streets.

And now, I'm here to help people that need help.

(Malea) We had two founders, Barry Corey and Mark Homan.

And their vision was really just to meet the emergency need that they saw happening in the community.

They were able to secure funding in the amount of $7,500 from then Mayor Lew Murphy.

And that's really how this program started.

And here we are almost 50 years later.

And we've just grown to this huge capacity now.

And we're serving all five southern counties.

160 plus staff members, thousands of volunteers.

High cost of housing and or housing instability is a driving force for why people come here to seek services.

Then people have to make tough choices around which bills to pay.

And food often is the last one that people end up prioritizing because people feel like they can somehow get by.

And then that's when they end up coming to us.

And unfortunately right now this year, we have a huge increase in people who are coming to us for the very first time.

And a lot of that has to do with the new high cost of housing.

(Alan) My rent went up $50 a month, which isn't bad considering what a lot of other people are getting but for me is a lot.

So I have to live on $1,500 a month with the rent and everything, utilities.

This really means difference between starving and not starving.

(Margarita) Everybody should know about this place because it is a lot of help for people that need help.

They help you out too looking for houses and everything else.

And that's how I found that trailer too.

I have five great grandkids and I have four grandkids.

And then my daughter recently died two years ago.

This bank has been helping me a lot with the food and everything.

(Connie) Since the pandemic, we've like doubled the amount of people coming through.

When I started pre pandemic, we just had one little circle of food we handed out and a few people would come in.

We're doing over 400 people per three hour shift.

(Malea) We also provide a ton of resources around gardening.

Things like seeds and the ability to grow your own food.

And then we also have at Las Milpitas community farm.

We have over 70 plots that are available for community use for free.

So people can grow their own food.

They can also learn about food systems as well as water harvesting.

As a kid, I was a beneficiary of our programs.

And so it does really feel like full circle for me personally.

And I just feel like it is a real honor to be able to be in this position and to be part of such a committed and really caring group of individuals.

The energy is so great, even when the issues are really hard.

(Tom) Mount Lemmon Ski Valley, way up there on the mountain behind us, is the southernmost ski facility in the contiguous United States.

Tucsonan Anthony Trugman takes us there now for a day of skiing, and a little while later to another activity that's unique to Tucson's climate.

[MUSIC] (Anthony) I'm Anthony Trugman and I've lived in Tucson for 20 years.

And we are embarking on a very Tucsonan experience heading up to Mount Lemmon Ski Valley.

What's so interesting about this experience is that we are in the desert, as you can see, Saguaros.

But we're heading up to approximately, I think, Mount Lemmon is about 9,000 feet in elevation, which gives us snow at this time of year when we're lucky.

And that transition is stark and almost surreal, cuz you're going from one extreme to the other in a matter of minutes, really.

It's the most southern spot you can go skiing in the contiguous 48 states.

The proximity of Ski Valley to where I live makes it possible to go snowboarding in the morning and then come back down into the valley and jump in the pool.

And it's like you've had two different vacations in one day.

I don't know if there's many places in the world that you can do that in such a short period of time.

(Graham) My name is Graham Davies and I am the area manager for Mount Lemmon Ski Valley.

[MUSIC] We are on top of Mount Lemmon, about 32 miles outside of Tucson, Arizona.

Skiing on Mount Lemmon started probably in the late 40s with some airmen from Davis, Monthan, and they started skiing and it formed into a club that was Saguaro Ski Club.

And then that slowly morphed into Mount Lemmon Ski Valley.

People equate it to driving basically from the Sonoran Desert to Canada in about an hour.

If we had a world map in there, we would have people from all over the world.

You know, it's funny because you could sit here and talk in the lift line and you'll find somebody who will say they were out here from Iowa and they came up here and thought it would be a joke and they had the time of their lives.

(Anthony) It has been magical up here.

I'm wearing, as you can see, just a flannel.

I'm not even wearing gloves.

It's unbelievable.

The snow is light and fluffy.

The sun is bright.

The skies are blue.

I just couldn't ask for a better day up here.

[car drives by] (Graham) There's a two-lane highway, 32 miles.

It's well traveled in the wintertime.

You know, in the last few years, it seems like it's becoming an issue with road closures.

Road closures are definitely a major entanglement that we have to deal with.

(Anthony) When they do align and that road is opened, it's just beautiful.

Even though we're in the desert, when the conditions are like this, we have two feet of fresh powder in some of these valleys right below us.

All these things have to line up and when they do, it's magical.

Fortunately, the lift lines are short, so you can do a lot of short runs.

(Graham) My mother and father purchased a special-use permit to develop a ski area in the late 60s and developed what we know now as Mount Lemmon Ski Valley.

My father in college kind of stumbled upon being able to acquire the permit to have a ski area on Mount Lemmon and through all his efforts put in base facilities, parking lots, ski lifts.

So it's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.

They actually had a ski shop or two in Tucson and Phoenix and they did skiing and surf supplies, which is really needed in Tucson in the middle of the desert.

So they decided to go a step further and try to develop a ski area in the Sonoran Desert, which is either smarter or the dumbest thing ever.

You know, it varies year to year.

Last year we got 10 weeks.

I always would love to try to get 10 weeks out of a ski season.

Arizona is, you know, it's not known for skiing exactly.

For the average Tucsonan or Sierra Vistan or people from south of the border in Mexico, we get a lot from Hermosillo and pennies are tight.

It's not a bad thing to just drive up here an hour away, spend a little money and go back home and sleep in your own bed.

And we have a lot of people that bring their own lunches and half the time you can walk through the parking lot and someone will give you a hot dog, so you never know.

(Voice off camera) Are you a total genius or have you completely lost your mind?

(Graham) It's a coin toss.

(laughing) Ask me each day and you'll get a different answer.

Today I'm a genius, tomorrow I'll be in the nut house.

[splash] (Tom) Thank you for joining us from here at Udall Park on Tucson's East Side, and we'll see you next week for another all-new episode of Arizona Illustrated.

(upbeat music)