"Aren’t You Glad You Worked Out Today?"

Yesterday I did something that I haven’t done in about two years. Wow I can’t believe it has been that long since I worked out at the gym. It’s true, for some reason after my last gym membership expired, I never went back. But I have been bugging myself that I need to get back to it, and so Cindy and I went over to the Holyoke Y and I found myself on the Elipical machine again, working up a sweat and then doing Nautilus weights….and when we walked out into the soggy Holyoke morning, I felt great. That little sign that I used to read when I left my old gym, that said “Aren’t you glad you worked out today?” rang so true. YES.

Then we drove a few blocks and ran into a crowd of people at the corner of Suffolk St and Appleton in downtown Holyoke. Van Dog, my favorite Holyoke blogger, has published photos of the theater and yesterday he took this grand shot of the main seating area.

They were there to give tours of the Victory Theater, a still beautiful and abandoned 1600-seat movie and live house that was last used in 1979. Don Saunders has big plans for this city-owned treasure, his MIFA organization wants to revitalize it and bring live theater to Holyoke. It will cost about $30 million to restore this three-balcony theater to its original glory. Saunders told the tour group that in 1928, when the city was rolling in affluence from the silk and paper mill fortunes, it had the highest per capita income in the US!

It was inspiring to listen to his vision, and his belief that this long downtrodden theater could be restored, if we have patience and he can get the state funds to do it. Cindy and I both agreed that we’d donate to a cause like this, because we believe in Holyoke, and this would be a huge step in revitalizing the whole city.