Greetings friends!
Fall is invigorating. Especially this year.
The last 20 months have been gray, blah and a long cold lonely winter. Everything seems to taste better in the fall and this year even better, as I lost of a lot of my taste when I had COVID last year. That really sucked. Now, things taste wonderful, buttery, savory and sweet. You know it is full when the restaurants have butter nut squash on their menus, one of my favorite dining out seasons. AND, many days are nice enough to still sit on the patio. Did I ever mention that I love patio dining? Yes, I probably did, more than once.
Even though we are not out of the COVID woods yet, it is time to get that holiday feeling back, as we know it won’t be as bad as last year. It is feeling colorful, it feels fresh, and it tastes wonderful. After a year of what seems like non-stop fires, the air is feeling crisper as we put Halloween and the MAMA Awards behind us, we get that holiday spring in our steps. As a reminder, the way we do this is to be safe, get vaccinated and look out for each other. Thanksgiving season is not about you or me, it is about each other, and being the person that makes our community safe. This is what freedom really is.
October went by in a flash. The 21st MAMA Awards celebrated a rebirth of our music and performing arts community and was a fun success where we recognized our “Lifeline” awards for those that helped us get through. See a complete list of the winners and how to stream the show at www.modestoview.com
There is a lot going on this time of year. We have been really busy at our Sierra Pacific Warehouse Group keeping the supply chain running, and the ModestoView crew has been really been working hard creating new events and spreading the positive word.
This is the month of Thanksgiving. I am a believer in celebrating the holiday at hand. As the commercial world starts playing Christmas music, I feel we need to resist. This is the harvest and Thanksgiving season and we need to treat it special. Call me traditional, but not until Thanksgiving is over and the dishes washed, will I get our Christmas decorations out. As a family, we will engage in our traditions of putting up our tree, watch Christmas Vacation and drink eggnog from our Wally World cups.
It is a different fall here in Modesto USA. Many things familiar are coming back, but there are others that are still missing. One of our friends is back, as we welcome Modesto On Ice back to downtown on November 20. ModestoView and Sierra Pacific are proud to be a sponsor. This has been such a game changer for downtown and was so missed last season. Modesto On Ice has attracted thousands of people to experience our downtown, many that had whom had not visited for quite sometime. Hopefully they found something new they will like.
As we gather with families for Thanksgiving and the holiday season begins with Black Friday, ModShop will be missing and will be rescheduled for the spring. However, have no fear as we are highlight some of the local crafters that will make your holiday season bright as we shop local this year, especially on those big shopping days and let’s focus our giving locally for Giving Tuesday on November 30. ModestoView is all about support our local businesses and I am very thankful for the local businesses that advertise in the pages of ModestoView so we can continue to bring this to you, free of charge.
Still, I need your help so I can help you. ModestoView works hard to have the best event calendar in the Stanislaus County area as we reopen our economy. My friend and senior editor extraordinaire Middagh Goodwin manages our calendar and spends a lot of time looking for event info. We can’t do it without you. Please send us your events, boutiques, festivals, live music, educational sessions and fund raisers, even those happening next year, so we can make our calendar the best resource you can count on and just as importantly, help you plan. Send your info to events@modestoview.com<mailto:events@modestoview.com> to get in our calendar and even featured in these pages, on our Facebook, our Instagram and our Twitter. No one else connects the print edition with our social and digital programs like ModestoView to help spread the word. There more there is to do, the more people get excited.
I wish you all a wonderful harvest and Thanksgiving. I am truly thankful for you our readers, our friends and our partners and hope that ModestoView brings you joy and mental refreshment. I hope to see you out all safely out and about so we can enjoy this community together.
Thank you all so much,
Chris Murphy
Founder and Publisher, ModestoView
chrism@modestoview.com<mailto:chrism@modestoview.com>
