Meet Dusty Crisman. Dusty is a Business Owner and Fabulous Children’s Book Author.
Q: How long have you lived or worked in our community?
A: 42 years. I came here July 2nd, 1980.
Q: What brought you to Sedona?
A: I have no idea. Well, I got out of Houston, Texas. I worked at NASA there for two years, and the weather drove us out. My daughter and I got in the car and just traveled to Arizona and said, let’s try Phoenix. That was like living in Houston. We went up in Prescott, which was like living in Indiana. So we kept going until we came into Sedona. So I said, I guess this is it because the Hills just said, “Welcome Home.” And so, I bought a house and started a business.
Q: What kind of business?
A: My daughter and I figured out that housekeeping was something we were good at so we formed Dusty’s Dusters. I retired two years ago.
Q: Tell us about 1980 and the theater group.
A: There wasn’t anything to do in town, so about 75 of us decided to start a theater group in association with Sedona Arts Center. Pat Kanner was our first president. And two years later, I became the president in 1984. We turned the basement of The Sedona Art Center into a beautiful theater. It was a community, but we were all volunteers, and we all had something to do. We performed Pajama Games, Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof. It was fun, and it kept us busy.
Q: You also did some writing.
A: I did a lot of writing for the theater wing for the children’s Christmas shows plus writing the music. Due to the death of my cat I wanted to write a homage to little Kai, a beautiful Siamese cat. I started doodling around and wrote it all up. My friends kept saying, this is good. Why don’t you make this into a book? I found Paul Schwartz, who does publishing, to help me. And they said we’ll publish your book through Amazon. That’s how ‘Kai, the Sedona Siamese’ was born. A year later, I was in the backyard with my grandchildren, and we were talking about the trees, and I said that one tree looked very lonely. That’s an excellent idea for another book, and so I wrote ‘The Lonely Tree.’
Q: What do you do in Sedona for fun?
A: I have been with the Democrats of the Red Rocks since 2004, and they are a great group of people. Then, recently, I joined the National Indivisibles, which Sedona has two chapters. So, I’m very involved in politics, and we turned Arizona blue. We have over 400 members in the Democrats of the Red Rocks. That’s kept us busy. But you get burnt out. I just retired from that. However, I just kept my hand in if they needed a volunteer to come in the office and substitute. But mostly right now, I’m just reading. I am a library person. I love reading and writing, and I’m working on my third book.
Q: Tell us about your third book.
A: I went back to Kai Sedona Siamese and decided to write about him in his backyard.
Q: What advice would you give people?
A: “Have patience. Things are going to happen. Either you’re able to help or ignore it or do something about it. If you don’t do anything about the situation, don’t sit around and complain about it.
Q: What would your absolute best friend say about you?
A: Well, she just passed away on September 9th, but she said that “Everybody loves and respects you.”
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about Sedona besides the Red Rocks?
A: “I miss the clearness of the air. When COVID hit, everyone stayed home. Thus the air was so fresh and clean and clear, and you could see the stars. I love the nights here; I love that we have dark skies now because that was just so important for people like myself, who moved here to be in the country, plus the beauty of the red rocks, and I get to see that every morning. But what do I love about Sedona? The people and we all have the same feeling about Sedona but the amount of traffic, no. But I wouldn’t live anywhere else.
Q: Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you’d like someone to know about you?
A: Well, I’m fun to be around, ha-ha. At my advanced age, I’m concerned about our climate. Yes. We have a climate problem. We have children that need attending to; we need better teachers. I want people to know that I am still a very concerned person. I want us all to get up off our backsides, get away from the television and get out there and do something about it.
