We rolled into town for my Dad’s birthday just in time to be part of the beginning of the Summer of Graffiti in Modesto. A month long celebration of car shows, music and cruisin’ the main drag of McHenry Avenue ties to the iconic coming of age movie, American Graffiti. The writer/director, George Lucas is from Modesto and graduated from my high school, Thomas Downey High in 1962. American Graffiti touched the hearts of millions and created a kind of “time capsule” of what life was like through the eyes of American teenagers and how it was changing in that pivotal year of 1962. In fact, Universal Pictures describes the film as capturing the “heart of America’s last age of innocence.”  Continue reading →