Longing for Elyria of Yesteryear

Posted in Family traditions, Fun stuff
by Heather Durdil

This past weekend I had the opportunity to hang out with a client and her family after their family shoot at an ice cream shop in downtown Chagrin Falls.  While walking to the ice cream shop from their van I window shopped and people watched on an Indian Summer-esque November evening.

American Flags were flying, people were laughing & catching up with friends on the street, patrons were darting in and out of shops, families were bicycling and I have to admit, it made me sort of sad.  I couldn’t put my finger on why such a scene would make me sad, so I just shrugged it off.  Thinking I was just seeing all the families and here I was with a client and hers.  I was ready, after a long day of errands & work, to go home and enjoy mine.

While in the ice cream shop that over looked the falls, my client asks me, “Do you know what this building originally was built for?”

I shook my head no and before I could open my mouth, her husband chimed in and said, “It was built as a station to over look the falls. Isn’t that neat?”

At the mention of the Falls, I thought of The Falls that we have here in our beautiful city.  I thought about how it would be neat to have an ice cream stand right there and have people talking about our falls and their beauty to people visiting our wonderful town.  How people could be window shopping, patrons darting here and there, children laughing, people talking….right here in Elyria.

Going downtown is almost sad, and its partly my fault.  Granted there isn’t many shops lining the streets, open and ready for business.  So because of convience I go somewhere else. Some place bigger.  Some place nicer.

So the death of our downtown, or town even, lies squarely on my shoulders.  I could patron what shops are down there.  When we decide to go out to eat, we don’t  have to drive to the mall first.  So I long for that Elyria of yesteryear.  To see our city alive & booming.  To see Elyrians out visiting on the sidewalks, with the flags flying, and the people laughing.

And maybe, just maybe you would hear me talking to someone about the Old Mill that Was…..next to our beautiful falls