This is a screenshot from the weather app, Carrot.
Bro. I knew it wasn’t going to get to the 105 and 106 on Friday. This is what many weather models were showing.
You could tell by 9AM it wasn’t going to be that hot.
You see, experienced Fresnans know that the night before and the morning of, tell you everything about what the day is going to be like.
I worked outside most of the day and it was fine to me (humble brag). I am locked in for this Summer.
Anyway, really I am here to take this time to note that weather people are out to fuck Fresno.
All of them predict Fresno as being hotter than it really is. This is not an issue of the reading being taken at the wrong place (which it totally is), weather apps always error on the side of hotter.
Just like my favorite one, Carrot, they predict higher than it ends up being. All. The. Time.
So screw them all. I don’t know why they want to keep Fresno down, maybe they don’t even know they are doing it. But they do it.
I have always said that Fresno is a great basecamp for visiting the Sierras, most notably our three nearby National Parks: Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia. But I had never really known of someone that actually did it – someone not from here anyway.
A dude named Nick Pisano is spending a year traveling (sounds like a sweet gig if you can get it) with his partner and recently spent a couple weeks using Fresno as a basecamp.
This long blog post by Nick documents his use of Fresno as a base for visiting our nearby parks and … Bakersfield ?♀️ -that is actually a cool part to me, but anyway.
It is a overall good blog post illustrating how a tourist can use Fresno as a basecamp, I want to make that clear.
Buuuuut.
He gave us several shots throughout the post. He tried to be nice about it, but definitely didn’t pass up on chance to deal in digs:
“Not a lot going on here”
“I’ve gone out in search of Fresno, as it were, multiple times here and come up relatively empty each time.”
“relatively sleepy”
“The key to enjoying this city is lowering your expectations”
“a kinda bad city next to some very good things”
“I say this with the utmost respect, but there’s just not a terrible lot going on here. In some ways, it’s the least-happening place we’ve been.”
Woah. Pretty rough.
I will give him credit for going to a Fresno Grizzlies game, the Tower District, and bonus points for visiting the Underground Gardens. He seemed to enjoy those, as he should.
He certainly didn’t do all the things though.
In fact, one major mistake: He did not seem to have much (if any) Mexican food – most notably no mention of tacos:
Next time I’ll show you the stuff the tourist guides won’t
Yep, you KNOW Mike Oz is taking that dude on the taco tour of his life next time.
Speaking of food, going out to eat is a feature for Fresnans. Part of our culture is eating out. When someone visits us, we plan on eating places. It is a “thing to do”.
You can make fun of that if you like but I think it’s cool. It’s a Fresno feature that is underrated.
Also, this guy seemed to not be familiar with the concept of a small city. A working class city. A city for living a life.
Not every town is built to give a shit about tourists. Fresno is one of them.
We don’t have a beach. We don’t have Disneyland. There are no longer any cable cars. A Hollywood sign doesn’t loom over the town. We don’t have a Vegas Strip. We have no plan for someone hanging out for two weeks.
What our “sleepy town” has is people working their ass off and living a life.
Saturday starting at 1:00 and ending sometime really really later
If you are on ‘Fresno Internet’, I’m sure you have seen that FresYes Fest is Saturday.
If you haven’t been before, my number one tip is to go early. It starts at 1:00 so go at 1:00! (Unless you are not broken like me and enjoy large crowds then go whenever)
This is an all ages event and free to get it, fyi.
I plan to stick around for Bill Clifton & The Chicken & Whiskey Band’s set there in the 3-4 mid-afternoon sweet spot, then I will have one foot out the door – time to hit the road.
Reason being, that is the time (4:30ish) when the lines really start forming. The mess starts happening. The youth begin to takeover. People from weird places like Clovis start showing up.
And that’s totally cool and stuff – I just don’t want to be there for it. My curmudgeon self won’t endure.
The only thing that might get me to stay is Joshua Tehee hosting a stage:
I can’t say I have heard of any of those bands which is totally cool because I am ready to be impressed or whatever – it has been too damn long since I’ve seen some local talent live.
I also might stay for beer – if there are no lines. Also can stay for taco variants:
But again, you gotta be there early, even for tacos.
“Where the fuck do I park!?” Like, dude, wherever. Look at the map:
Alrighty, well, it doesn’t exactly hold your hand and show you where to park but just act like you’re going to a Grizzlies game or jury duty and you’ll be fine.
But also, maybe get your Uncle to give you a ride down there and just wing it for a ride home – make an adventure out of it. One year I walked over to The Raddison and got an Uber home from there.
Anyway, it will be fun, even for grumpy dudes like me. See ya out there EARLY. ✌️?
As I have noted in the past we have some good groups in town keeping old Fresno pictures and memories alive. I would like to add a nerdass entry with my memory maps – hand drawn maps of an area of Fresno with memories of things that once were.
Today we are at Palm & Bullard.
NW Corner
Opus 1 hasn’t changed a bunch
Home of the Opus 1 shopping center. It’s always been there since I have been alive.
Outside of a few shops changing to something else, it’s the same.
There used to be a cool little record shop. It was around at the tail-end of the 80s and maybe at the beginning of the 90s. Now would be a great time for it it be there again. I believe it was in the spot that the Grape Tray is in.
SW Corner
This in not the actual one but it’s damn close
At one time a nice little Foodland Market. Then a Walgreens. Now a yarn place of some kind. Has a neat little green space next to it where Bullard kids would go have their fights after school.
Foster’s is still there and thankfully hasn’t changed… like, AT ALL.
There once was one of the Fotomat places that looked like the one pictured above.
NE Corner
As it is today and stuff
Old Save Mart location. Still empty. Seems like it will be empty forever. My Grandmother lived in the apartments behind the shopping center and we got to bring the carts home when shopping – for some reason I thought that was cool.
There used to be a Sierra Nut House. Now there is a car wash.
Bullard Village Drugs was the jam before all the Walgreens and CVS style places took over. Good magazine section and a good Pharmacist.
Bullard Liquor is now nothing.
The dry cleaner is still there and hasn’t changed. ?
Mama Mia’s is thankfully still there – home of my favorite gnocchi in town.
SE Corner
7-11 has always been there. Not a whole lot has changed. Although when I was a kid there was a little video game room where the Slurpee machince is now. I dropped many quarters into those.
There was a little one of those Fresno PD phones on the side of 7-11 (maybe it is still there). Ironically, the parking lot is where Bullard kids would go to find out where the “illegal” parties were at.
The 76 station is now one of those dinosaur gas stations.??
Feel free to share any history or stories you have about the area, in the comments.
I have been wanting to do a series of posts about the areas and districts of Fresno for probably 14 years now. It’s about time I get started.
I’ll start with my area: Fig Garden/Bullard/NW Fresno.
I live near Bullard High so I often refer to it (to those that ask) as the “Bullard Area.”
Am I in Fig Garden? Yes. Am I in NW Fresno? Yes. But within those two, I am in Bullard. Hey, Instagram recognizes it in their location option, so why not?
But who the hell am I to say? So I put it out there to Fresno Twitter:
Imagine you lived North of Shaw in NW Fresno, the area of Bullard High/Fig Garden and gave a crap about such things, which is better to say you are in?:
Ok so things start becoming just NW Fresno at some point. But the border is?
My first thought is Marks. But I have seen some maps that have Fig Garden centered at Bullard and Valentine. So we should pick something different.
The Loop. The FIG GARDEN loop. You live East of The Loop (Fig Garden Drive to Shaw), you are Fig Garden. West? You are another thing. Then use Brawley up to Locust as a border to the North.
There we are. Fig Garden broadly defined. Maybe I will start saying I live in Fig Garden now?
I still want to work on the little districts within NW Fresno and then build out the rest of Fresno. But we have a start here.
For the sake of this post, I will put aside the debate about if it is safe enough to go to a packed bar in the final (we hope) throws of a pandemic.
That said…
Tonight is Thanksgiving Eve. Traditionally a big night in the Tower District, where Fresno Natives (now living out-of-town) come back and mix with current Fresnans.
Those current ones have to listen to old friends pump up their post-Fresno lives, like they’re trying to sell us on bitcoin.
Livingstone’s traditionally has been the epicenter for these meetups. At this point, I am afraid to go.
Not because I am worried I’ll run into some weird person from my past. It’s because I likely would not run into anybody.
Like, not one person I know.
Been away from the Tower scene too long. And any old friends I might see hardly go out anymore either.
I might be too old for Livingstone’s. (ouch that stings)
Enjoy yourselves, younger Tower people. Enjoy Livingstone’s and Strummers and Goldstein’s and Vini’s and Fresbrew and Spokeasy’s and whatever.
