When I was young I dreaded going to illinois.
My parents both worked, and money was tight, so when the summer vacation came around they shipped me east to stay with my grandparents on their rural farm.
This way they didn’t have to worry about me being unattended while I was out of school and they were working. Summers on the farm were deadly dull, without much to do besides chores, and I hated having to go. The only thing I loved about those days was when my grandma would take me to Orland Park for a day trip. I know that Orland Park is not a major metropolitan area, but compared to that remote piece of farmland it was as good as Chicago itself. On the farm my grandparents only had a small, window mounted air conditioner, which needed a very specific kind of air filter. This was a long time ago, mind you, and we couldn’t buy a ten-pack of sturdy air filters at Walmart. We had to travel to Orland Park to get the air filters, and usually grandma used it as an excuse to take me out for ice cream, or to get new shoes. Orland Park had a movie theater and a shopping mall, and every kind of fast food I could think of, and I desperately wanted my grandparents to move there. After a while I started cutting holes in the air filters, just so my grandma had a reason to take me back to Orland Park, which is pretty crazy now that I think about it. .