The Carousel.

I would not be honest if I said this was a new blog topic; I have written one with the same title, and photo before, however this one will be different. Sort of.

If you have watched the series “Mad Men,” you may recall the episode where Don Draper presents a new campaign to a potential client, Kodak. The focus was on a new product launch known as “the wheel---the projector most of us remember as the one with the circular device that sat on top of the machine and sometimes had slides pop out of it hitting the floor. To sum up it up, thanks to Don's masterful presentation,” This device isn't a spaceship; it's a time machine. It goes backwards and forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called the wheel. It's called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels, around and back home again to a place where we know we are loved."

In life, we take the ticket handed to us, climb aboard, and go for a ride---yet in the back of our minds, we know we can only go one way.

I have met many people who have grown up in Glen Ellyn; they went to school here, they met their spouses here, and if they moved away, they are back home again. It says a lot about the community and how they feel about it---something that can’t always be said about the places where you grew up. I can’t imagine what it would be like to move back to my hometown or the house where I grew up after all of these years.

For most people who have moved back to the community, they don’t live in the same house where they lived as a child; I would have to believe when they drive by their old house, or now just their “parent’s house,” it would have an outpouring of emotions that can never be replicated. (One where they “ache to go to again.”) Going back home brings out memories of a time that was safe, secure, and relatively simple---even if you don’t live in the same house, it must be nice to be back home.

As I prepared to start “Our Town,” I met a lot of people. When I told them about the idea most said, “I would like to read it.” Some are reading, and many I have forgotten to let know I have started write it. What I learned when I spoke with “lifers,” was how much they love Glen Ellyn; most have had the chance to move on to other areas of the country or the world---and even though it sounded appealing, they decided to stay or come back home.

The photo above was taken by the splash park near Roosevelt Road; what I loved most about the picture was how it reminded me of the good ol’ days when life was simpler. Of course, we can never go back, and if I went on a carousel today I would likely get sick; but watching these kids have fun the way I did as a boy took me to a place I ached to go again--- back home.

Thanks for stopping by.