I was looking for pics of the El Con mall in Tucson. I found this..
The pics are fantastic, like the memories. My husband bought his first toolbox in the sears shown. He was 19 and he still has it!
I worked at this mall, in Levy's which is also shown. I wrote a story about this called, The Cafe At The Mall.
Anyway, look at all the people. It was so easy to meet people. I worked at a second restaurant there as well, and met the manager of the Spencer's Gifts, randomly, in the guts of the mall. He became my roommate. He was a Scorpio, and he is also the person who ran and told my husband I wanted him to come to dinner, the day we met.
He wound up doing the exact same thing, Ben, did when he left town. They both chose to see me, last. The last person to say goodbye to before they pulled on to the highway and left tucson, for good. He was my roommate for a year or so. He was 26, I was 16-17. I still have one of his albums, lol.
Do you have good memories like this? He gave me the album, because my husband, then teenage bf liked it. I will have to recall which one. Escapes me at the moment. But look at all the normal people. I love normal people. Just being themselves, living their lives.
We did not get a mall until I was a teenager. Before that we used to shop at Ann and Hope which was located in an old textile mill. It was not finished inside so it still looked like a mill. The signs were handmade and they had this contraption to get your shopping cart to the bottom floor. They hooked it up on a chain thing that went down on a slant next to the stairs. you would wait at the bottom of the stairs for your carriage. lol As kids we thought this was amazing. The whole place smelled like the popcorn they sold at the consessions. We picked out our school clothes and put them on lay-a-way, paying them off gradually before school started.
I'm not pre-Amazon, but Neptune in Capricorn gen, I'm Amazon- and AI- and big-tech-infringing-on-everything adjacent. I remember third places and as I've grown I've watched them basically disappear. There was so much more stuff to do even when I was in high school, which was not that long ago. It's weird to see the K-Mart at the top of the article Elsa posted so alive. It closed a few years back and the parking lot is a ghost town.
You'll never hear me wax poetic about shopping and spending money. I'm thrifty and I resent the ever-present message that happiness can be bought. But it is really depressing to see places disappearing. Churches, not for the religions themselves, which are often ramming horrendous ideas down peoples' throats, but churches as a place to exchange thoughts and eat donuts and pierogi with other likeminded humans. Malls, not for the sake of the consumerism and glamor, but malls as a place to be with other people and hear a funny story while you're struggling to find a bra that fits, which you do on the internet anyway. Theaters, not as if Hollywood hasn't been festering abuse and bullshit ideas, but theaters as a place to be with other people and talk about exactly that!
Having everything accessible with the click of a mouse did nothing for our wallets, because now a handful of disgustingly wealthy flesh husks control everything we need and want and can arbitrarily "adjust" their prices whether we like it or not. It did nothing for the environment, because Chinese Amazon vendors and fast-fashion giants are churning out chemical-laden, poorly stitched rayon and flimsy plastic faster than anyone can keep up with. It definitely did nothing for our minds or bodies. Being alone and sitting still can't be better than the hassle of... walking, riding the bus or parking in a garage?
I'm just clawing for a shred of realness in an artificial world (tough talk for a 12th house Sun, I know). I exist because my mom answered my dad's personal ad and they went and played at a Toys-R-Us, which bit the dust. A lot of new people and a lot of friendships between existing people are never going to happen, and a lot of mental illness is cropping up because there aren't a lot of "places" left. Thanks for reading my rant.
By the way, "third place" is a term I use often and a favorite new concept of mine. It's a term for places other than your workplace or your home. It can be utilitarian, e.g. grocery and hardware stores, but mostly I use it to describe the places where you can do things that aren't utilitarian, e.g., have fun with other humans. Here's a nice, meaty, non-clickbait video from one of my favorite bloggers about the disappearance of the third place and loneliness among my fellow Millennials and Gen Z.
@rusalka but toys r us did not hit the dust. It was targeted by hedge funds, to be be destroyed, as were many other businesses. Everything else, I agree with fully.
I'll add, what you see on media is distorted and misrepresented. You're immersed in this to such a degree, interaction with real people causes anxiety. It's like you want to go back to the comfort of the cartoon folks you can seemingly control. I mean, you can dissappear someone with a click. Everything to your liking, for zero growth!
@rusalka I'm sorry. I meant the collective.
I am going to write about this. I have it organized in my head but I've not had a chance, what with dying people, dying people having birthdays and people who have actually died.
Definitely not personal.
@elsa I figured, just making sure. I read everything on the blog but I'd love to see that.
I remember what the death raining down felt like. I am sorry to hear about you and soup and other people on here going through this. I went through a period when I was a teen where everyone was dying. It hasn't been thick around me lately but I know it's coming back. Partly because many of my dear ones are getting old, partly because what I'm getting every time I log into social media, is just masses of people my age, 18-30, who are chronically, severely ill. Like stage 3 cancer or TPN for the rest of their lives starting at 21. Not that I'm the picture of good health, but my autoimmune issue is purely genetic and altogether not as bad as I thought.
Oh my gosh, I was just thinking last night about all the places that have disappeared in my home town - theatres, shops, green spaces (especially the large allotments that hosted a huge funfair every year, the doughnuts were awesome!) and an awful lot of third spaces that were always, always thronging with people. We had quite a few arcades and their flashing lights and exciting games just enthralled me as a kid.
The high streets are dying now, all that's left is generic chains - mainly coffee shops and barbers, the latter being a common money-laundering front. It's sad and there's not many people left here that remember these old places.
@plutolover I noticed this, and wrote about it extensively, beginning fifteen years ago. I watched my neighborhood transform. It scared me at the time. I could feel it.
Fast forward a dozen years, and I'm writing about the landscape being bulldozed under. Compare that to the opening of these city-center type places.
I lived in the desert when that mall opened. I used to ride my ten speed, twenty miles, to go cool down in that mall, use the drinking fountain, before riding home. Summertime, I'd do this three times a week. I was 11, 12, 13 years old.
It's very different than doing nothing and stuffing your mind with garbage all day. Satiated by digital images.
@elsa yes, going into town was an event and something to look forward to. Even before our town had a shopping mall, it was the best way to socialise. I remember my grandmother and great aunt getting on a bus in their small village to come miles into town to pick up a couple of bits, meet friends in a cafe and just spend time there.
And yes, when you do venture down the high street these days, most all the people you see are engrossed in their phones, they aren't even 'there'.
@plutolover it seems our lives are structured by the agenda of an outside force. Now we are to be isolated and dependent. I think we're at the stage when you turn around and see the brick wall at the back of the theater 🎭
@elsa Similar. As I wrote, the nearest store was a half mile away and over our little area there were other things but not close together. A diner. A liquor store. A bar. A barber shop. A restaurant. The fire station. But as kids with bikes we only went to the store maybe. Otherwise we were riding our bikes all over, to the park by the lake, in the back over the country roads. We would play kickball in the street or at a kid’s house. Make “forts”. I’d go on hikes or all day bike rides. For some reason we had all these planks of wood in my backyard and they made a great stage so we would make up plays for the everyone 😂
I find it very interesting to hear Rusalka’s point of view compared to is older folks. I appreciate it all!
I grew up in the suburbs but our backyard abutted undeveloped woods and beyond that farms. We had one grocery store 1/2 mile away but we had a mall a couple towns over. I remember it had a pet store in it and the walkway between all the stores had little windows with a cage where you could see the hamsters or a tank to see fish. I loved it. I was maybe 4 or 5 at my earliest recollection. And there was a Woolworths, maybe? And Sears. That’s where we got our school clothes where my mom would order them from a catalog. And Dey’s department store but that was fancy for my family.
I don’t remember going and hanging out at the mall a whole lot. I would go with one of my friends sometimes. The roller skating rink was hot! We HAD to go at least once a week, twice if our parents felt like it. My friends’ parents and mine would take turns driving us. That was the hottest place around. The music. The really great skaters. The crushes 🫠 We did that for a few years.
We went to more movies then, too.
Everything was physical.