Cars-on-a-stick Letterbox
Berwyn, Illinois (Cook County)
Other nearby letterboxes: Chicago Portage, Architectural Mystery
Easy, great for families. But watch for cars.
This is a film canister microbox. You must bring your own pen and
stamp pad.
Placed for the third time April 13, 2003, by yooperann
(wfisher47@attbi.com)

This would be the most ordinary of dingy strip malls, were it not for
its owner, an art patron named David Bermant. Instead, thanks to
Bermant's passion for public art, the mall has more than twenty
pieces of sculpture towering over the parking lots and lining the
sidewalk in front of the stores. Many of them movesome almost
imperceptibly, some with the push of a button, others with every
breeze. For a complete list of the art, and the controversies that
have sometimes surrounded it, see
http://www.enteract.com/~jdeubel/plaza/
Undoubtedly, the best-known piece of art in the Cermak Plaza, thanks
both to its size and its cameo role in the movie "Wayne's World," is
an 80 foot tall spike that appears to have been pushed through a
stack of eight cars in various stages of disintegration. The
sculpture is officially named "Spindle" but at our house we've always
just called it "Cars-on-a-stick." This letterbox is placed in honor
of this quirky piece of public art and in the hopes that you'll stop
awhile and appreciate this too often neglected collection.

Directions:
The Cermak Plaza is located at the southeast corner of the
intersection of Harlem Avenue and Cermak Road in Berwyn, Illinois,
about eight miles from downtown Chicago. Both the Eisenhower
expressway (I-290) and the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) have Harlem
Avenue exits (the mall is about two miles south of the Eisenhower and
about four miles north of the Stevenson). The mall can also be
reached by public transportation.
Once you've located the mall, start your search at the base of the
Cars-on-a-stick. Note and remember the artist's nameyou'll need it
later. Now look toward the horizon, facing the same direction as the
spindled car with the license plate KPA 807. As you scan the horizon
to your left you'll see a water tower, and then just below and to the
left of the water tower, you'll see a moving sculpture that just
sticks above a small square building. That sculpture is called "Bee
Tree" by artist George Rhoads.
You're going to go over by Bee Tree, and you can make a bee
line to it. Starting from in front of Bee Tree, go around the square
building until you find another sculpture by the same artist who did
the cars-on-a-stick. As you read the sign, notice that you are in an
extremely public spot. Think of how very foolish it would be to put
a letterbox in the rear wheel well of that sculpture. Someone would
surely take it. So anticipate that the replacement box would be in a
much less public place. Walk east along the sidewalk in front of the
mall, admiring all the sculptures on your way. Continue past a store
where you can put all your eggs in one basket and then past one where
you can add a salami. Pass a bench and a bike rack. Oops, you're
off the end of the sidewalk! Head back toward the cars-on-a-stick,
circling the outside of a small clump of bushes. There's a rock at
the northeastern corner of the clump that would be a good place to
stop and tie your shoe. Facing the salami place as bend over to tie
your shoe, reach into the bushes about 8" above the ground and find
the film-canister microbox. With luck, it will be held to one of the
branches with a loop of Velcro. BE VERY DISCREET FINDING AND
REPLACING THE BOX!!