Growing up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a lavender bike with multicolored handlebar streamers was my most prized possession. Every day after school, it carried me away on countless adventures beyond the borders of my school-going, book-reading, overprotective-parent-having world. I spent many a long afternoon exploring the flat, sprawling Chicago 'burbs, often to places my mom had forbidden me to go. Chief among them were: the Goodbye Ranch (candy heaven for any 4th grader and primary recipient of my allowance money), anywhere near busy Roosevelt Road, and a nearby, untamed patch of prairie with tall grasses that seemed to graze the sky when you were standing in them, causing you to suddenly lose all sense of direction as if tossed by a golden sea. I eventually graduated to a blue ten speed with balding tires -- a hand-me-down from an older cousin -- and then we moved to Virginia, where I preferred borrowing my brother's mountain bike to scale the hilly terrain, before abandoning bike riding altogether.
Awesome, but medium is sold out :(
ReplyDeleteI've been a reader of the blog for a while and was scrolling through a few backposts on my Google Reader today when I came across this one and stopped dead in my tracks: not because of the bike (though it's beautiful), but because I also grew up in Glen Ellyn (and also now in NYC)! It's a small town so I very, very rarely stumble upon other people who know it. Not much of a point to this comment, I suppose, just a "huh, cool!" to pass along.
ReplyDelete@Claire: Wow! Small world! I lived there from 1988-93, on Lambert Rd. I wonder if we ever went to school together (Lincoln Elementary? Hadley Jr. High?). I haven't been back in ages, but I LOVED Glen Ellyn and was heartbroken when my family moved away.
ReplyDeleteThat's so crazy! I lived there from 1988 (birth) - 1997, on Sawyer Ave. Only there for elementary school then, but yes, I went to Lincoln! After that my family moved away and I was also heartbroken to leave. So bizarre, but nice to connect with someone else from there!
ReplyDeleteHow funny! I wonder if some of my old teachers were around by the time you got to Lincoln. Definitely nice to "meet" someone from Glen Ellyn, so thanks for writing (and for reading the blog)!
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