Friday - Oct. 27, 2023- Hunting pumpkins

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Good morning!

The last time I carved a pumpkin I was in university. I think it was my first year, and the girl who was running the dorm that year decided it would be a good bonding experience for the freshmen. The kitchen in our residence hall smelled like dismembered gourds for weeks. It did not, in fact, bond us together.

– Grace

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NEWS

The great Fraser Valley pumpkin patch list

It’s nearly the end of October. Halloween hangs in the air like a full moon in an indigo sky. You’ve planned the costume (Iron Man), asked out a date for the Halloween dance at school (on a dare), and settled the trick-or-treat route with your friends (you know exactly where to find the big candy bars this year).

But something’s missing.

As you launch yourself off the porch on Thursday morning, backpack swinging off one shoulder, you realize: there are no jack-o-lanterns at the door. It’s a disaster—how can you possibly have missed this hallmark of the perfect Halloween? You pull out your rubber boots and start bugging your parents to take you to the pumpkin patch after school.

What’s Halloween without tromping through a field, picking out your own gourd, then taking it home to disembowel, chop holes in, and light on fire? You ask. You pester. You whine. They cave.

After all, they need some decent pictures of you to put on Facebook. May as well include you holding a pumpkin. But where to go?

• Today Grace tries to list every pumpkin patch in the Fraser Valley. 

Related

Need to know

🎆 There were multiple reports of a major fireworks explosion on Highway 1 near Hope late last night; numerous videos and photos posted online showed large numbers of fireworks exploding at once [Kendra Bergen/Facebook]

👻 A ghost(town) story for October: Why was a mining town abandoned in northern BC? [The Tyee]

➡️ The body found at the scene of an explosion in Langley was not murdered, police say [CBC]

🔊 Neighbours of a proposed Chilliwack apartment said it was hard to decipher city hall’s jargon [Chilliwack Progress]

🏥 A toddler who nearly drowned in Cultus Lake last summer is improving [Chilliwack Progress]

👩‍⚖️ A young man was sentenced to 18 months in jail for manslaughter in Carson Crimeni’s death; the judge called the crime ‘dangerous and stupid’ [Langley Advance Times]

➡️ An inmate serving time for manslaughter died at Mountain Institution near Agassiz [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

💻️ A laptop heist from a storage facility in Mission is under investigation [Mission Record]

🍣 An Edo Japan restaurant will open in Abbotsford’s High Street Shopping Centre [Abbotsford News]

🚓 A wanted 47-year-old man was found and arrested a month after he didn’t show up to his court date in his Langley home [RCMP]

👉️ A shooting at a Langley Starbucks left one person seriously injured [Langley Advance Times]

🧠 Mission teachers are letting students use AI, so long as they acknowledge it, as district seeks middle ground with new technology [Mission Record]

🚔️ Two suspects in Chilliwack drug-trafficking case face more charges after drugs and guns were seized from a residence [Chilliwack Progress]

⚾️ A Langley Little League baseball team from 1998 made the BC Sports Hall of Fame for its world championship record [Langley Advance Times]

SPONSORED BY MASSEY THEATRE

EPIC Dog Man Weekend awaits!

Have you got your tickets to see Dog Man: The Musical at Massey Theatre? Limited tickets are still available. Plus, Petey's Café and Children's Book Fair & Market will be open at 11am-6pm. Dog Man cookies, merchandise, selfie booth, and more! Join Massey Theatre on October 28-29 in New Westminster. See you there!

The Agenda

Langley non-profit mapping accessibility in the Fraser Valley

Langley Pos-Abilities, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping seniors and people with disabilities in the community, is working on a map of accessible locations in the Fraser Valley.

The map would allow anyone with mobility needs (from people in wheelchairs to seniors with walkers to moms pushing strollers) to check out the place they’re going before they arrive.

The map shows accessibility reports for several public buildings and private businesses in the valley so far. Each report shows a “Disability Friendliness Score” where users can comment and add their grades. Hearing, vision, and mobility scores are listed separately.

Langley Pos-Abilities is encouraging community members to review places they go and add to the map. See the map here.

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💾 Flashback Friday

The Mission Strawberry Festival was an annual event that began in 1946 in the efforts to bring Mission’s berry industry back to it’s pre-world-war splendour. This photo, snapped in 1949, is of the third annual festival. Mission had marketed itself for years as the "Home of the Big Red Strawberry," according to the city's museum.

Throughout the years, the festival was comprised of several different competitions and celebrations. Strawberry kings and queens were crowned. Games and skills competitions were played. A baseball tournament, log-bucking competition and, eventually, a soapbox derby were added. But the soap box derby proved the undoing of the Strawberry Festival: the soap box cars quickly outshone the strawberry festival. The last strawberry festival took place in 1956. The soap box derby continues today.

🗓 Things to do

Concert: The Doobie Brothers will play Abbotsford Centre on their 50th Anniversary Tour on Saturday, Oct. 28. Tickets available online.

Kid’s show: The Howl Masquerade, a musical Halloween show for kids put on by a combination of pro performers and local youth, will take over the Chilliwack Cultural Centre on Sunday, Oct. 29. Details online.

Comedy show: Brogan’s Diner in Langley is hosting a comedy roast battle on Saturday, Oct. 28. Tickets online.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

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