Aaron! This was a fantastic read. I loved getting to experience the malls of your childhood. Richardson Square was the closest, and Prestonwood had the skating rink, but the real gem was Northpark, an architectural marvel like the ones you shared. Yes, it had stores, but it also had that 60's architecture I loved, gardens, modern art, sculptures, and air conditioning. It was Dallas, Texas! Too hot to be anywhere else. A scene of True Stories was shot there, too, the same mall where my grandparents mall-walked in the mornings in their later years. Thanks for jogging my mall memories.
This brought back fond memories of going to the Mall of America in the Minneapolis suburbs on family vacations in the nineties. Highlights were the indoor amusement park Camp Snoopy, Paul Bunyan log flume, and Legoland! And my hometown mall, small but a way to pass the time for sure.
Great article. I'm 15 years older than you but had the same life experiences in Malls throughout the 1960's and 70's. For me, the big draw at the mall was that they all had musical instrument stores, and getting my folks to take me to a stand alone music store wasn't likely to happen most days. So as soon as we hit the malls, I was bolting first to the music store to see the drums and guitars and then to the "record" store to maybe score some 45's or an LP.
I worked at a mall movie theater for about a week in high school. Didn't care much for it. I did a lot of vacuuming.
saw this - What if we rebuilt all the abandoned malls into Gen X retirement homes? You got your arcade, movie theater, food court, plenty of places just to hang out, etc., You could socialize at the food court. They could have a movie theatre and maybe even a room to take some classes in. Hell, they could put an urgent care in there somewhere. During cold months you could mall walk for exercise. It already has escalators and elevators for mobility issues.
Seen this ? https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057714877596&mibextid=LQQJ4d
your mall has a facebook!
That was the greatest article ever written
Aaron! This was a fantastic read. I loved getting to experience the malls of your childhood. Richardson Square was the closest, and Prestonwood had the skating rink, but the real gem was Northpark, an architectural marvel like the ones you shared. Yes, it had stores, but it also had that 60's architecture I loved, gardens, modern art, sculptures, and air conditioning. It was Dallas, Texas! Too hot to be anywhere else. A scene of True Stories was shot there, too, the same mall where my grandparents mall-walked in the mornings in their later years. Thanks for jogging my mall memories.
This brought back fond memories of going to the Mall of America in the Minneapolis suburbs on family vacations in the nineties. Highlights were the indoor amusement park Camp Snoopy, Paul Bunyan log flume, and Legoland! And my hometown mall, small but a way to pass the time for sure.
By the way, the pictures were great too. Such a universal story for some of us. My youngest totally missed out on the mall scene.
Great article. I'm 15 years older than you but had the same life experiences in Malls throughout the 1960's and 70's. For me, the big draw at the mall was that they all had musical instrument stores, and getting my folks to take me to a stand alone music store wasn't likely to happen most days. So as soon as we hit the malls, I was bolting first to the music store to see the drums and guitars and then to the "record" store to maybe score some 45's or an LP.
I worked at a mall movie theater for about a week in high school. Didn't care much for it. I did a lot of vacuuming.
saw this - What if we rebuilt all the abandoned malls into Gen X retirement homes? You got your arcade, movie theater, food court, plenty of places just to hang out, etc., You could socialize at the food court. They could have a movie theatre and maybe even a room to take some classes in. Hell, they could put an urgent care in there somewhere. During cold months you could mall walk for exercise. It already has escalators and elevators for mobility issues.