How many of you remember going to the mall?
That magical place where young people went to hang out and socialize more than buy things. The local mall was a place to see and been seen. It was like cruising main street on a Friday night, but you were instead walking around a horribly decorated box with ugly carpet and populated with a lot of stores you never even noticed.
It was a magical place.
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How many of you remember going to the mall?
That magical place where young people went to hang out and socialize more than buy things. The local mall was a place to see and been seen. It was like cruising main street on a Friday night, but you were instead walking around a horribly decorated box with ugly carpet and populated with a lot of stores you never even noticed.
It was a magical place.
The first shopping mall was built in the 1950s, but they started coming into their own in the 1970s, before becoming the center of popular culture during the 80s. Going to the mall was a big deal for everyone, but especially teenagers.
I remember when my small town got its first mall, Southgate Mall, back in 1973. It was pretty dinky by mall standards, but to us it was an incredible place to hang out, buy a record, have a Coke and waste hours on end.
The mall was a few miles from my house. It was on “the mesa” and I lived in “the valley.” But if I rode my bike on the irrigation canal banks from my neighborhood south to 24th Street, then east up the hill to Avenue A, where I would take a right, head south a few more blocks and then dodge through the neighborhood for about a mile, I would eventually reach Southgate Mall, in all of its 1970s glory.