Neoclassical columns! I mean, come on! On a nice day, I can bike all along the lakefront to the stadium. Name another NFL stadium that has Doric columns. So naturally, the Bears want to leave this beautiful place on the lake, and move on from the only thing that makes this team interesting (it’s certainly not the on-field product). Old-timey street lights illuminated the path. I waddled in my snowpants (December, remember) past the Field museum, another work of art, and followed the zig-zaggy sidewalks in the park filled with crowds marching to the game and drummers pounding away on buckets. And the walk up to Soldier Field is uniquely Chicago. My anticipation grew as the roads became narrower and the buildings got taller and taller. Just driving into Chicago to find parking for the game was a thrilling event.
And for a small-town kid, that was the coolest feeling, and probably why I am a city girl today. With the lake to my left, and downtown to my right, it felt like I was standing inside the skyline. You can still see the imprint of the stairs where the seating was. My dad pointed out the spot where our family’s season tickets used to be, pre-renovation, in a lower part of the bowl. But even with the unfortunate renovations (it was delisted as a National Historic Landmark), which made the seating less flat and wide and more high and modern stadium-like, we could still walk right next to and underneath the giant columns and watch the traffic whizz by on Lake Shore Drive. This was post-renovation, which most first-time observers will say made the stadium look like a spaceship wrecked on a Greek temple. It was a night game, and the big columns guarding the stadium were all lit up. (If it was the Giants, history tells me the Bears lost.) But I do remember being so impressed with the setting and the moment. I don’t remember who the Bears played, maybe the Giants? And I don’t remember if they won or lost.
We used my uncle’s season tickets, which had been in the family in one form or another since 1971 (except for a dark period in ’90s when my grandma didn’t tell anyone that she didn’t renew the tickets). I was 14 years old, and I went with my dad and my uncle. The first time I went to Soldier Field was 2007.
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