Everyone has their hometown memories ingrained in their minds, and can't help but smile when they think back. When you get to talking about old times with your grade school friends, it goes on for hours. If you asked anyone about growing up in good ol' Arlington "Action" Heights, they'd probably spill hundreds of stories from Pioneer Park, DTA, and the unending rivalry between Wayside and Saint James. Here are the memories that growing up in Arlington Heights provided me with.
1. Seeing movies daily was a thing since it used to cost $5.25. When the theatre closed, the town went through a period of mourning.
2. Middle school dudes: If you didn't have a bike to ride around on with your posse, staying home was suggested.
3. You asked out or got asked out at Pioneer Park.
4. Business people who commuted to Chicago for work took the day off on St. Patrick's Day since drunk hooligans packed the train from front to back for the Chicago Parade.
5. Having a visitor or someone over the age of 50 ask where the Arlington Heights museum is and kids saying, "We have a museum?"
6. Any time you got pulled over, you'd cross your fingers hoping it was Officer Friendly from the D.A.R.E. program because he would let you off without a ticket.
7. The Summer Reading Program at the library is the epitome of competition for middle schoolers. The prizes were taken extremely seriously.
8. To the man who relentlessly runs -- no, sprints -- backwards and barefoot around Pioneer Park more times than any of us could count -- thank you for endless entertainment, and props because you're still doing it 10 years later.
9. The debate for the best day of the year comes down to either Pioneer Pool opening or the first day we were able to sled at Sunset Meadows, even though the amount of kids at both qualified them as death traps.
10. Police cars in Pioneer Park parking lot meant something BIG was going down, and you couldn't wait to get on Instant Messenger to see the rumors that were already going around (via AIM away messages).
11. Hot dogs and milkshakes at The Riv was the essential summer kick-off.
12. The majority of the month of June was convincing your parents to let you stay at Frontier Days past 10 p.m.
13. For Halloween, you had to go to Scarsdale to get the jumbo candy bars.
14. When 1Stop became 7/11, the slushies were never the same.
15. No doubt we look back now and make fun of ourselves and our old hometown hobbies, but we all agree we wouldn't have had it any other way.
