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Hi, thanks for reading. You're right, but the mall golden age was before my time. What I like about the mall I wrote about is that it doesn't feel dead, it stil

Hi, thanks for reading. You're right, but the mall golden age was before my time. What I like about the mall I wrote about is that it doesn't feel dead, it still has some of the essence captured in Fast Times or this video, which is one of my favorites: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_q7zfJwQIsg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_q7zfJwQIsg

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
I grew up in the 80s and went to the mall many friday and saturday nights to be with friends and, later, to flirt with girls. A typical exciting night went like this: parents dropped us off and picked us up (too young to drive). Sometimes I'd carpool with friends, sometimes we would just meet there. We might catch a movie (two screens were typical, maybe 3, so they could fit a theatre attached to a mall unlike today's 24-screen monsters). Then we would hit the mall video arcade -- some malls even had two arcades! -- then the ice cream shop or Orange Julius ... this was before food courts... then browsing or shopping at KB Toys toy stores, Spencer Gifts, and Encore or Walden Books (especially the Dungeons & Dragons section in the book stores). But the primary reason for going was to socialize. We would pass other groups of kids walking up and down the mall like us, looking for something do but really just enjoying being together but never admitting that to each other. That wouldn't be cool. Sometimes we knew those other groups of kids, sometimes not, and on rare occasions a fight might break out or at least a chase through the mall. I didnt go into the department stores really, unless they had a toy section or maybe a sports section, but i think the girls went into them for makeup, etc. Claire's didnt exist yet and neither did Victoria's Secret or Target. When it was time to go, we'd call the parents on pay phones if we hadn't prearranged a pickup time, then wait outside if it was summer. I remember seeing E.T. in theatres in this manner in the summer of 1982. And later, Rocky III. Simple memories of fun childhood times when we were learning independence.

TedDoesntTalk 6y ago

I grew up in the 80s and went to the mall many friday and saturday nights to be with friends and, later, to flirt with girls. A typical exciting night went like this: parents dropped us off and picked us up (too young to drive). Sometimes I'd carpool with friends, sometimes we would just meet there. We might catch a movie (two screens were typical, maybe 3, so they could fit a theatre attached to a mall unlike today's 24-screen monsters). Then we would hit the mall video arcade -- some malls even had two arcades! -- then the ice cream shop or Orange Julius ... this was before food courts... then browsing or shopping at KB Toys toy stores, Spencer Gifts, and Encore or Walden Books (especially the Dungeons & Dragons section in the book stores). But the primary reason for going was to socialize. We would pass other groups of kids walking up and down the mall like us, looking for something do but really just enjoying being together but never admitting that to each other. That wouldn't be cool. Sometimes we knew those other groups of kids, sometimes not, and on rare occasions a fight might break out or at least a chase through the mall. I didnt go into the department stores really, unless they had a toy section or maybe a sports section, but i think the girls went into them for makeup, etc. Claire's didnt exist yet and neither did Victoria's Secret or Target. When it was time to go, we'd call the parents on pay phones if we hadn't prearranged a pickup time, then wait outside if it was summer. I remember seeing E.T. in theatres in this manner in the summer of 1982. And later, Rocky III. Simple memories of fun childhood times when we were learning independence.