Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, November 4, 2017

Mountain View News Saturday, November 4, 2017 
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Mountain View News Saturday, November 4, 2017 
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Walking Sierra Madre…The Social Side 

by Deanne Davis 


Can you believe it? November already! And we actuallyhad a little rain, fortunately, not on Halloween nightwhen thousands of folks visited Sierra Madre and 
walked Alegria to see all the fantastical pumpkins,
skeletons, ghosts, witches and various other zombie-
type creatures.

I’m sure you’ve come across Ezekiel 37 in the OldTestament a time or two in your life. Remember? Godtook Ezekiel down into the valley of the dry bonesand told him to “Prophesy to these bones!” So Ezekieldid and next thing you know, dem old bones came tolife and became a vast army. And, of course, you’vesung that song about dry bones, written by African-
American author and composer, James Weldon Johnson,
somewhere around 1928. The reason I’m bringing allthese dry bones to mind is because that valley of drybones was pretty much what Sierra Madre lookedlike this past week. Skeletons everywhere you castyour eyes! And spiders! The Giant Spider Store mustbe totally sold out as there were giant spiders on justabout every fence, wall and roof in town. It’s so neat theway our town does its scary best to make Halloween anoteworthy event.

Walking Sierra Madre...The Social Side is presentingawards to a bunch of folks for creating amazingHalloween décor. 

First Prize: Bud Switzer for all the years of incrediblycarved pumpkins – Bud started it all a number of yearsago with hundreds of amazing pumpkins carved byBud and son, Kevin, set out all along his fence anddriveway. He is still unmatched for scary, happy, silly,
pumpkin faces.

Best Over-all Decoration: The house on the west side 
of Baldwin, just above Orange Grove. These folks havehad their decorations up all month and everythingthey’ve done is Halloween-perfect. I’m not talkinga ghost or two, I’m talking about dozens of ghastlycreations. 

Best Use of Pumpkins: The Parkers, who outdid 
themselves again this year with more creative uses 
of pumpkins, grown themselves, than anyone could 
have imagined; including a Cinderella coach drawn 
by three angry looking cats. This year’s Snagon 
(snake-dragon) had the best face and the longest 
body ever! And these Hell’s Angels (pictured) are 
out of control! 

Best Depiction of El Dia de los Muertos: Javier andErica Catanses, for huge day-glo portraits and creaturesand a Dodgers skeleton sitting on the bench by the 

sidewalk. 

Best Building of Effects: Craig and Lisa Cardellafor that cute little house, the towers of skulls and their 
lighting was outta sight! Cutest kids costumes, too,
Lisa, Violet, Fay, Avery and Charlotte.

Best Graveyards: Susan Blakeslee and ShawnBlakeslee, with best sayings on tombstones. Favoritetombstone was at the Biely’s: I told you I was sick!

Best Ghosts: The circle of creepy ghosts in front of St.
Rita’s rectory.

Best Scarecrows: That skeleton wedding couple Ishared a couple of weeks ago, which was on Highlandjust west of Baldwin.

Best Window Art: All the kids who painted thewindows downtown...and all the merchants who let 
them. Especially liked the windows at the Kensington,
the architect firm, and Chase Bank. 

Best Part of All: The adorable small children walkingup and down Alegria during the day in their costumes,
coming to see the sights. The little ones are what makeall this fun, seeing their big eyes getting bigger as theycome upon giant black and purple spiders who movetheir legs and witches peeking out of shrubbery.

We’ve survived another one, friends and neighbors.
A splendid time was had by all and, judging from thenumber of candy wrappers still decorating the town,
our local dentists will soon be filling cavities by thescore. Hope you got lots of Milk Duds, Dots and ThreeMusketeers! 

John Davis, best friend, husband, and walking buddyof mine passed away October 9th. If you missed lastweek’s Mountain Views News, John’s memorial service 
will be today, Saturday, November 4th at 1:00 p.m. atFirst Church of the Nazarene, 3700 E. Sierra Madre 
Blvd., Pasadena 91107. In lieu of flowers, donations to 
World Vision’s Clean Water Project would be greatlyappreciated. John’s ID/Pledge Number is D10002667.
The address: World Vision, PO Box 70399, Tacoma, 
WA 98481-0399. All are welcome to attend John’s 
Memorial. 

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis 
Blog: www.authordeanne.com 

“A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter” isavailable there… 

As are all the Emma Gainsworth Pumpkin 
Adventures 
Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd 

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com