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Mountain View News Saturday, August 23, 2025


Weather Wise

WALKING SIERRA MADRE 

 The Social Side by Deanne Davis


6-Day Forecast Sierra Madre, Ca.

“Just think how many centuries pumpkins waited patiently in the patch 
to be discovered by Starbucks. Never let go of your dreams.” Beth Moore

“Only the knife knows what goes on in the heart of a pumpkin.” Simone 
Schwarz-Bart

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte returns for the 21st year on August 
26th! Yes, friends and neighbors, it is officially pumpkin season and 
no one could be happier than I am. Pumpkins are about to abound 
throughout my house. Pumpkin granola muffins have been made 
and devoured, Pumpkin Bread is contemplated and we really want 
pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin ice cream. We have even been 
known to indulge in Pumpkin Martinis! The picture today is of a 
splendidly diabolical pumpkin. The perfect match for Part 2 of…

A Halloween Horror Story

As you may recall, the owner of the Pumpkin Patch planted 
some broken, cracked and just generally not really prize-winning 
pumpkin seeds in the far corner of the Pumpkin Patch. As the 
season progressed, he discovered that those seeds had produced 
thicker, stronger and somehow menacing pumpkin vines. The 
owner was just a little uneasy around those vines and the pumpkins they were producing. “Ridiculous!” he thought. 
“They’re pumpkins. That’s all, just

plain old pumpkins.” But were they?

July came and went. The pumpkins in the middle of the field grew fat, bursting with orange life. August arrived. 
The pumpkins grew to such gigantic size that the owner visualized pictures of himself in the newspaper standing 
next to a pumpkin – his pumpkin – that weighed more than the heaviest pumpkin in North America, grown by 
Travis Gienger in Minnesota and weighing in at a staggering 2,749 pounds.

September sauntered in and several of the pumpkins would need industrial strength forklifts to move them. The 
owner was delighted. Meanwhile, over in the damaged seed corner, the pumpkins were strangely dark, oddly 
shaped, and not nearly as large as the sumptuous orange ones. A prize-winning pumpkin should look exactly like 
Cinderella’s fairy-tale carriage; perfectly round, bright shiny orange. The damaged seed pumpkins were more 
Amber, Spice, Clay, Rust and Bronze than orange and tended to be anything but round.

October at last! The owner put ads in the newspaper and banners at the entrance to the Pumpkin Patch. “The 
Pumpkin Patch will open on Saturday, October 3rd! Come one, Come All!” Friday night, October 2nd, the owner 
walked through his beautiful Patch one last time to be sure all was in readiness for the hordes of pumpkin seekers 
he was sure would arrive in the morning. He went to bed and dreamt satisfying dreams of large bank deposits and 
happy families streaming

out of his Patch cradeling his pumpkins in their arms.

Saturday dawned. The owner arose early, enjoyed a cup of Pumpkin Spice coffee with a pumpkin granola muffin 
and strolled out to survey his pumpkin kingdom.

He was aghast! All his beautiful, enormous, prize-winning orange pumpkins were smashed, squashed, squished, 
their seeds and innards spilled out on the ground. Strangely, the damaged seed pumpkins had migrated to the 
center of the field, squatting triumphantly amidst the carnage, many of them stained with traces of pumpkin insides 
and seeds. These pumpkins were sated, stuffed with the flesh of all the highly favored, pampered and petted orange 
pumpkins. They had

grown huge, their dark green leaves and vines coiled ‘round their carnivorous, cannibalistic nutmeg and cinnamon 
colored – dare I say it? Bodies?

All potential pumpkin buyers reeled back in horror when they approached the gates of the Pumpkin Patch, fled 
to their cars and sped away. The owner of the Pumpkin Patch developed a horrific migraine, took to his bed and 
wept quietly. Walking outside the next morning, the owner was shocked to see all the carnivorous, cannibalistic 
pumpkins were gone. The field was deserted. With tears in his eyes, he plowed under the wreckage of his dreams. 
He never bought another package of pumpkin seeds.

Again this year, Linus will wait out in his pumpkin patch for The Great Pumpkin to arrive and shower him and his 
friends with gifts. He is sure that this year, his will be the most sincere pumpkin patch in the world. Alas, he and 
Charlie Brown will again wait in vain. Thanks, Charles Schulz, for the memories.

“Pumpkins may seem benign, with their smiling jack-o-lantern faces,but what horror may lie inside their hollow 
shells.”

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

There are treasures there! Trust me!

Including “Just Desserts” A Fall Fantasy of Pumpkins Gone Wrong!

 Sun Sunny Hi 90s Lows 60s 

 Mon: Sunny Hi 90s Lows 60s 

 Tues: Sunny Hi 90s Lows 60s 

 Wed: Sunny Hi 90s Lows 60s

 Thur: Sunny Hi 90s Lows 60s 

 Fri: Sunny Hi 90s Lows 60s

Forecasts courtesy of the National Weather Service

SIERRA MADRE CITY MEETINGS

SIERRA MADRE CITY 

COUNCIL MEETING

Council is on Summer 

Recess Until:

August 26, 2025 5:30 pm

THIS MEETING WILL BE HELD 
IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS!

As part of the City of Sierra Madre’s 

COVID-19 transparency efforts and The Brown 
Act provides the public with an opportunity to 
make public comments at any public meeting. 
Public comment may also be made by e-mail to 
PublicComment@CityofSierraMadre.com by 
3:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting. 

Emails will be acknowledged at the Council 
meeting and filed into public record. The public 
may also comment in person at the meeting.

The meetings will be streamed live on Foothills 
Media website at foothillsmedia.org/sierramadre 
and broadcast on Government Access 
Channel 3 (Spectrum)..

1630 AM EMERGENCY RADIO & 

Free on-air publicity for local events

 Sierra Madre’s EMERGENCY radio station is now accepting scripts for 
Public Service Announcements (PSAs) about community events. PSAs 
will be broadcast on the air at no charge. The station operates 24/7 and can 
be heard at 1630 on the AM dial.

 Any local non-profit or non-commercial organization can have their 
event information broadcast to the public on Sierra Madre Community 
Information Radio. The station covers the city of Sierra Madre, plus 
surrounding areas of Pasadena, Arcadia, and Monrovia. 

Your event must:

• Benefit a non-commercial or non-profit entity
• Be open to the public
• Be of general interest to local citizens


Just 
write a Public Service Announcement that describes your event and 
e-mail it to radio@cityofsierramadre.com. 


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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