photo by: Colin McRoberts

Oliver McRoberts has a bike of his own from one of his favorite shops in Lawrence, Sunflower Outdoor and Bike Shop. Oliver is pictured in October of 2019, at 2 years of age.

A fresh waffle cone from Sylas and Maddy’s with a heap of strawberry cheesecake ice cream, that’s what has been on Arielle Raymos’ mind. That, and sharing the experience — not the ice cream — with a friend, as they walk down Massachusetts Street with their prized treats.

It’s a tradition of sorts.

“We usually go in and then I pretend like I’m going to get something else and then I get strawberry cheesecake every time,” the recent University of Kansas graduate said.

photo by: Arielle Raymos

Arielle Raymos, left, and Danny Jalilpoor, right, always celebrated life events by getting ice cream from Sylas and Maddy’s and walking up and down Massachusetts Street.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Raymos always went to Sylas and Maddy’s to celebrate an event — her birthday, the last day of class, following her last final. But on Wednesday, after Raymos defended her master’s thesis, she wasn’t able to celebrate with her friend, Danny Jalilpoor, in the way they’d perfected.

Now, Raymos will leave for Wisconsin at the end of the summer, where she’ll be pursuing her Ph.D. There’s an expiration date on her time in Lawrence, and she hopes to be able to do (and eat) some of her favorite things before she goes.

Everyone has something they are looking forward to, but no one is sure when exactly that something will return, or what shape it will take. The Journal-World interviewed seven Lawrence residents about what aspect of life in Lawrence they are eagerly anticipating when things return “to normal.”

Apoorv Ingle is a Ph.D. student at KU. He’s excited to get his social life back, and when he does, he hopes it will include dancing and listening to music at Replay Lounge, watching soccer games at Red Lyon Tavern and going to Latin Night at Lucia Beer Garden and Grill. He wants to return to playing badminton with classmates three to four days a week at KU’s student Rec Center.

photo by: Contributed Photo

Apoorv Ingle, pictured at front-left in the collared shirt, enjoyed playing badminton three to four times a week in the Ambler fitness center at the University of Kansas.

Leilani Chun wants to go to the Granada to hear some bands.

“I grew up going there from when I was a kid,” the 20-year-old said. She’s been to more concerts at the Granada than she can count.

“It’s not the cleanest place, but it feels cozy,” Chun said.

She’s performed there once herself — as part of a traveling circus troupe when she was a kid — and said that since she performed barefoot, “By the end of the night my feet were completely black.”

But the grunginess of the Granada is what gives it some of its charm, Chun noted, adding that she misses the grunginess of life in general.

“I would say that’s one of the things I miss the most: The grit of real life,” she said. These days, Chun tries to spend a lot of time gardening, getting her hands in the dirt.

photo by: Contributed Photo

Leilani Chun has been working in her garden during quarantine.

Carolyn Montney just wants to see her grandkids and hug them. Four of Montney’s grandchildren are “an airline flight away,” and she has no idea when she’ll be able to see them next.

The other two, who live in Lawrence, have seen Montney in person, but from a distance.

“They’ve asked, ‘Can we give hugs?'” Montney said, and she responds that there’s “nothing I would like better to do than that.”

“They are all young and that’s their expectation of their grandparents. So this feels very different for all of us,” she said.

photo by: Contributed Photo

Gordon and Carolyn Montney are pictured with their grandchildren while on vacation in January.

Rorie Sturgeon, who will be a junior at Free State High School next year, misses seeing so many people each day at school, and she’s hoping there will be a cross country season to compete in this fall.

She loves the meets and the shot of gunfire at the start of a race.

“It kinda just fills you with all this anticipation and when you hear it it all just floods out of you and you just run,” she said.

It’s a communal and competitive experience she can’t get running on her own.

photo by: Contributed Photo

Rorie Sturgeon will be a junior at Free State High School in the fall and hopes there will be a cross country season.

Colin McRoberts and Jenny Raff are eager to continue introducing their 2-year-old son to Lawrence.

Oliver, or “Ox,” as his parents call him, is already a huge fan of the Lawrence Public Library, Raff said. They’d go there once a week for a story hour and Oliver enjoyed playing with the Legos and train sets, as well as picking out books for himself.

Oliver also loves the Sunflower Bike Shop.

“He loves to look at all the bikes and tell us which ones are his — all of them,” McRoberts said.

photo by: Colin McRoberts

Oliver McRoberts has a bike of his own from one of his favorite shops in Lawrence, Sunflower Outdoor and Bike Shop. Oliver is pictured in October of 2019, at 2 years of age.

When they can, McRoberts hopes to sign Oliver up for an art class at the Lawrence Arts Center, and Raff wants the family to take advantage of all the playgrounds in town.

In the “before times,” as Raff called them, McRoberts said his fondest memory was from last winter, when Oliver had just started walking and the family walked hand-in-hand down Massachusetts Street.

It was the holiday season, so the lights were up. McRoberts and Raff were still relatively new to Lawrence. The KU professors had recently moved from Austin, Texas, and it was Massachusetts Street that sold McRoberts on the idea of moving to Kansas.

“That view of downtown first sold me on Lawrence. So it was really fun to give him that same view of Lawrence,” McRoberts said of their son’s experience walking the street on his own.

“I’d like to do that again, and again, and again,” he said.

photo by: Colin McRoberts

Jennifer Raff walks with her son, Oliver, on Massachusetts Street in January of 2019, soon after Oliver learned to walk.