Welcome to “Our Town.”

It’s hard to believe it’s been an entire decade since we woke up on January 1, 2000 to find all was okay and life still existed. Y2K was suddenly a thing of the past, and we could now look forward to the new millennium and what the future would hold. Now, you might be saying, “We ended the decade last year when we wrung in 2010.”

What gives?

But as I see it, the first decade was officially put behind us last night when we watched the ball drop in New York City, or when we turned on a local news station here in Chicago to see people dancing, blowing noise makers and ringing in the new year. Either way, 2011 is here. Let the next decade begin.

So much has changed over the past 10 years; we have, of course, witnessed some wonderful events---we had 2 winning sports teams in Chicago (and many more if you count the Wolves and other teams that don’t receive much press), some horrific events, and many good and some bad in between. However, for most of us, we are still standing; maybe a little sideways at times, but our heads are up, we are looking forward, and we are ready to face what is placed in front of us for the future.

So where am I heading with all of this?

This past summer, Ron Aubrey called my home and left a voice mail on our answering machine. I was recently unemployed and had begun to photograph families, local sporting events, and everything else with my trusty Nikon. It was a challenging time, and until I found a new job, it was a way to stay busy, enjoy my passion of photography and meet a lot of very interesting people along the way. All have been achieved I am happy to report.

Ron wanted to meet to discuss a project he was involved in and to see if I would come along for the ride; I really didn’t know Ron well, but I said, “Sure.” While we were talking at Caribou Coffee, he paused and I said, “Ron, for the last year I wrote a blog. It ended a few weeks ago and now I am looking for the next topic. I think you just helped me find it.”

He looked at me and I can only imagine what he was thinking. I explained, “I am going to write about Glen Ellyn. I will treat it like an open book and write whatever feels right that particular day.” The look on Ron’s face was a cross between blank and intrigued; the more we have spoken about it over the past few months, the blank look is long gone and a smile has since replaced it.

So for the next 364 days, when you wake up, you will have “Our Town” waiting for you to read. It will be an adventure that I would love for you to take with me. I really didn’t know a lot about Glen Ellyn before I started, but I have learned a lot more recently.

We will look back in time, we will meet very interesting people along the way, and you just might learn something about “Our Town.”

Feel free to visit when you have a few minutes, and if you miss a few days, don’t worry you can always read what you missed---all blogs will be along the right-hand side of the page. If you ever want to contact me, my e-mail address is mrosenbaum123@gmail.com. I would like to know your opinions, thoughts, and ideas for topics. With 364 more entries to write, you can be sure I will be looking for ideas.

Until tomorrow, thanks for stopping by.