One Sweet Dream

Kenosha, Wisconsin: A series of buildings in the 5000 block of 7th Avenue seen at dusk.

The white building here is Grand Central Records and Tapes, but when I was a teen in the 1970s, the brown building to its right was a record store and head shop called One Sweet Dream (after a phrase in the Beatles song “You Never Give Me Your Money”). The place was a secret little world. It smelled of incense, and the rolling papers were strawberry-flavored. You could buy LPs imported from England on thick, high quality vinyl — such as the first Bad Company album.

The tan building with the green trim to the right of that was a busy bicycle shop called Don Gill’s. Bikes (Schwinns, Raleighs) rolled in and out, wheels were pumped and spun, gears adjusted, brakes tested all day every day.