if you lived here you'd be home by now

I was born in Greece but moved to the states at the age of 5. My dad always remembers it by the huge blizzard of 81 that hit Chicago. Nice welcome to our new home. We moved to a neighborhood just outside of the city called Oak Park. Even as a child I knew Oak Park was special. Not only was it historic - Frank Lloyd Wright perfected his Prairie Style architecture there -- but it was people-centric.

It had all the elements of what a community should have -- parks, churches of all kinds, a beautiful ornate post office that scared the living shit out of me, the library and a mall. Malls have changed so much since then. I cringe at that word, but the mall in Oak Park was...well...an outdoor mall built as a pedestrian walkway. This is what made Oak Park so special, everything was WALKABLE.

If I close my eyes and imagine myself walking through it, I can rattle off the stores....Benetton, a movie theater, a bookstore, a magic shop, a wig shop, the Gap with old logo (lowercase = gap), the signature Marshall Fields store, an aerobics studio, a payless shoe source, a costume shop, a Poppin Fresh (later became Baker's Square), and of course Thick Pan Alley....a pizza place that was coincidentally, off an alley.

There were other stores too, but they held no interest to me as a child. I only cared for the bookstore, the magic shop, thick pan alley and the Marshall Fields store (architecturally it amazed me and I loved the clock on the side). The wig store and costume shop actually frightened me. I would always tense up a bit walking by the windows.

My brother is 4 years older than me, old enough back then to have looked after me while our mom worked in the city.

I should mention that my parents soon divorced when we moved to the states, so we lived with our mom. Our dad lived in Lansing, Michigan and does to this day.

We were latchkey kids. We played in construction sites, we put pennies on railroad tracks and awaited anxiously for the freight train to barrel through and smash them to oblivion. We went to the library only to get shushed by the librarians for being too hyper, we went to the mall and spent our allowance on silly things, like those fake cigarettes from the magic shop.

Our mom would come home and George and I would proudly be 'smoking'...really it was just flour in there...you blew on it gently and it gave the sense of smoke coming out. We were so delighted with ourselves. I guess knowing how to cook for ourselves gave us the entitlement of enjoying a fake cigarette after a meal.

Our mom was horrified, but I think she found our ways as clever. I should probably ask her.

We later moved on to Forest Park, the neighborhood next to Oak Park. Not a charming place, but still walkable. I walked to and from school. In fact, our apartment was right across the street from the school. At recess I could stare up at our balcony and brag to my friends that THAT was where I lived, and THEY didn't. I definitely took much pride with this "walkability" thing.

When kids would be waiting for their parents to pull up in station wagons and transport them and 50 of the other neighborhood kids home, my brother and I would just coast on by...."Oh no Mrs. Schlitcting, we DON'T need a ride, we live RIGHT THERE, but THANK YOU".

I think the expression 'if you lived here you'd be home by now' was coined from our arrogance.

In all those years I was happy walking. The only use for the car was Greek Church on Sundays, going grocery shopping, having dinner at Jade Garden and taking family road trips. And I was just fine and dandy with this arrangement.

Nowadays I understand the joys of having a car. But I do miss the days where I didn't need one.

At the end of next month the Lance Armstrong Foundation is moving to the East side. I am eagerly preparing my new set of wheels for my commute. My Trek cruiser will be a blast to ride...I am counting down the days and wishing for good weather. I imagine myself zipping past cars, enjoying the wind on my face and feeling exhilarated. I will get to work out of breath, a little flushed and get home the same way. Maybe I will buy a front basket and buy bread along the way, like they do in Europe, or maybe feel entitled and enjoy a fake cigarette when I get home :).