Redartz: One aspect of Bronze age life for many of us was a trip to the mall. In the 70's and 80's, indoor shopping malls were huge business and drew massive crowds. Some to shop, some to people watch, some to 'hang out'. And they had a lot to offer: a wide variety of stores (usually including book stores, music stores and other sites appealing to eager young folk). They had a food court, which often involved standing around with your food waiting for a table to free up. They had video arcades and movie theaters, possibly the biggest attractions of all. Nearly every weekend would find our group of friends making a trip to such a mall, usually to shoot a bunch of quarters in the arcade. Some days we'd spend most of a day wandering the place. I actually worked at a few malls (and the experiences therein could fill another post entirely).What mall memories do you have? Were you a total mall rat, or would you not be caught dead there? Let's all pile in the car , head for the Galleria, and share...
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There weren't any malls where I lived - in fact, I don't think malls existed in the UK in the '70s but I could be wrong. Talking of mallrats - has anyone seen the film "Mallrats" which was hilarious in my opinion - Stan Lee was in it.
Charlie Horse, I just read your comment about plastic-covered furniture - my grandmother's furniture was covered in plastic ! She lived in a little back-room and the front-room containing the plastic-covered furniture was reserved for special occasions such as when visitors came (but when I visited I had to go in the back-room !) - I remember one time when some strangers arrived and we all sat on the plastic-covered furniture which just seemed weird to me. I'd always assumed my grandmother was a bit strange so your comment was a revelation - other people covered their furniture in plastic too !
CJ - Like Red mentioned,one of my grandmothers had the plastic that had square "bumps" for a texture. When you sat on it, with shortpants in the summer, your legs would stick to it and then the back of your legs would be indented with squares, lol. Especially since we really did not have air conditioning in the 60s so you tended to be a little hotter and a little sweater...
But regarding Malls... my sole interest was bookstores and arcades since this was pre-internet and pre-PCs. And I'll never forget walking into Walden's Bookstore and seeing Sternako's History of Comics on display in all its glory! My head exploded! Finally all those 100-page DC reprints started making sense intellectually! Finally Marvel Tales started making sense.
We didn't have a mall in our town, but there was one about 30 miles away in the city. We would go there on the weekends because there was a movie theatre. We'd go early and hang out in the book store and/or music store until the movie started. Now what few malls are still around usually don't have any of those three businesses within them.
Colin- haven't seen "Mallrats", and had no idea Stan was in it. Boy, he does get around...
Charlie- yes, Walden Books. Our local mall also had B.Dalton Books. Was nice to have such a selection. And you apparently had a pretty progressive Walden's. I don't recall ever seeing Steranko's history on sale anywhere!
Graham- sadly you seem correct about today's malls. Pretty much clothing stores, and even the malls still open seem to be declining. Where else can we go for an Auntie Anne Pretzel and an Orange Julius?
"Mallrats" had its moments. Some early Kevin Smith films were amusing like in "Chasing Amy" when characters debate what an inker does.
Malls are definitely in decline - some I have seen in midwestern towns are nearly vacant.
I seem to have had the same experience as others - arcades, book stores, record stores, movie theatres and food courts. Now most things get ordered on line. The old anchor stores like Sears and JC Penney are going the way of the dinosaurs. No more sunglasses and ear piercing kiosks! No more Glamour Shots! No more Mrs Fields cookies or the place that sold sausage and cheese! The kids don't know what they are missing.
Regarding plastic covered couches - years ago my parents inherited a couch like that. At some point we took the plastic off and within weeks the fabric deteriorated. It was like exposing a mummy to the elements; it turned to fuzzy dust.
My hometown of Sheffield didn't have any malls until the mid-1980s when a small one opened so far out of town that it was like travelling into the great unknown. Then a huge big one opened in the city's East End in 1990, which means it wasn't long enough ago for me to get nostalgic about.
I did though buy a copy of Les Daniels' history of Marvel Comics there, as well as the TPB that featured Neal Adams' Man-Bat tales and also another one featuring John Byrne's Captain America tales. So I have some fond comic book associations with it.
I've not been there for about four or five years because I do my major shopping online but it seems to still be going strong, with plans for a £300m extension. Sadly, when it opened, it inflicted massive damage to city centre retail and it's only now, a quarter of a century later, that the city centre's showing signs of recovery.
My biggest disappointment with it is that, before it opened, we were told that it was going to have robot dinosaurs, but then the robot dinosaurs never appeared. Needless to say, I have never recovered from the crushing disappointment.
Steve D.C.- Robot dinosaurs you say? And they never showed up? No wonder you were disappointed. One summer I took our family on a trip to Minnesota,and we visited the Mall of America. Incredibly big place. They actually have an amusement park inside the mall. Took my son on the roller coaster. Very odd feeling, indoors...
Steve-I feel sorry for your disappointment of no robotic dinosaurs. I remember taking my family to the Lake County Indiana fair in August, about 50 miles south of here. Unfortunately the fair was in Lake County Illinois about 40 miles north of here. They were disappointed too.. For life???
Redartz, I was down at Orange Beach a few years ago, and we actually found an Orange Julius. I had not had one of those in years. It was on the other side of the busy highway and I almost caused a wreck trying to turn around to get to it. My family thought I had lost my mind, until they got to try one for themselves......then it all made sense. :)
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