FROM THE EDITOR

There are really no mean streets in my sleepy little, homogenized, working class Ohio home town. No kid has ever needed to become a famous athlete to escape it, and no kid ever has.

But our tennis coach promised that the game would open the doors of places we otherwise couldn't go. And he was right. In the summers - even as a sub on our Jr. Davis team - I'd catch a ride with some of the guys to the country club in nearby Ashtabula, and we'd square off against kids whose moms and dads had to pay money for their lessons because they didn't have the luxury of finding the kind of pick-up matches we always had at our public courts.

Later, when I was in college, coach got me a summer job teaching tennis to 9- and 10-year-olds at a camp in the Berkshires. The kids came mostly form Short Hills, New Jersey or the tucked away hamlets of Connecticut. I had no concept of how well off their families were, and so I said to them what had been said to me. Stick with the game. It will take you places. Once, I told them, I was at country club and my opponent stopped the match so we could watch a vintage Jaguar pull up to the clubhouse.

Little Eric Model piped up, "There's a lot of places we can't go," he said. "Because we're Jewish."

This is some of the baggage that clatters in my brain whenever I go some place nice.

In September, while we prepared for the Best of the Best Gala, my co-worker Bill and I took a few minutes to wander at Wheaton's Arrowhead Golf Course. We went to the pro shop, looked at the greens, visited the well-stocked restaurant, and over and over I said, "Bill, this is for the public...Bill this is a public park district."

The operation at Wheaton is top notch, but that district is far from being alone in offering outstanding facilities to the public. Our state is blessed with public parks that reveal how the Ashtabula Country Club of my youth was, at best, third rate.

Why? Two reasons, I think.

First, we live in a state that places such a high value on public recreation that it has made units of government specifically devoted to it: our park districts, forest preserves, recreation and special recreation agencies.

Second, the people who work at these agencies are committed to making sure that, in our state, 'excellent' and 'exclusive' are not the same. These are the folks you'll find attending the Soaring to New Heights Conference. You'll sit next to them in sessions on everything from bonding authority to turf maintenance. These are your learned colleagues, who, like you, do their best for the public they serve.

As a citizen, I'm darn proud of our agencies. It doesn't matter where you're from or where you worship or even if you've got game. In Illinois, people like you give posh to the public.

Illinois Parks and Recreation
(ISSN 0019-2155) is published bimonthly at 211 E. Monroe Street, Springfield, Illinois, by the Illinois Association of Park Districts and the Illinois Park and Recreation Association. Annual subscription rates: $6 for IAPD/IPRA members; $25 for non-members; $30 foreign; $20 educational nstif'.itions. Single copies: $2 members: $5 nonmembers. Periodicals postage paid at Springfield, Illinois and additional post offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Illinois Parks & Recreation, 211 E, Monroe Street, Springfield, IL 62701-1186. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily express the official views of the IAPD/IPRA. Likewise, the publication of any advertisement is not to be construed as an endorsement of the product or services offered. Members of the IAPD and the IPRA and other interested persons are encouraged to submit articles and illustrative photos for possible publication in the magazine. Send for manuscript guidelines and deadline dates: Editor, Illinois Parks & Recreation, 211 E. Monroe Street, Springfield, IL 62701-1186, 217.523.4554, rwhelpley@ILparks.org, www.ILparks.org

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