Cars-on-a-stick Letterbox
Berwyn, Illinois (Cook County)
Other nearby letterboxes: Chicago Portage, Architectural Mystery
Easy, great for families. But watch for cars.

Placed November 29th, 2002, 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 move
some 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 ofeight 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.
For those familiar with the Chicago grid, that would make it
2200 South and 7200 West, or 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). If you want to avoid the expressway, it's also fun
to take Cermak Road all the way out, through the
heart of Chicago's large Mexican community.
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, but you'd be
crazy to just cut across the parking lot. Instead walk over to the
strip mall and walk along the sidewalk in front of the stores,
admiring the other sculptures on your way. As you come to the small
square building you'll notice a tiny area with a picnic table and
some benches. That might be a good place to come back to with the
letterbox after you find it. Now go to the Bee Tree. 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. So read the sign very intently as you
carefully and quietly reach behind the rear wheel well to pull out the
letterbox. Then move away as discreetly as you can to stamp up.
Please remember to be equally careful as you return the box.