The Mall Walker Returns. (Blogtober #20)

We have a new mall!

Back in the day, when I was the kind of teenager that loved to spend her waking moments–outside of school–in the mall with her fellow nerdy/sweetly obnoxious know-it-all friends, the mall was everything. In our local area, there was one popular mall that brought most of us to its doors. This mall boasted a movie theater, a Bennigan’s (if you remember Bennigan’s, I love you more than you know), and plenty of stores that held our attention as walked up and down the shiny hallways. In time, however, a few things changed when it came to our mall time: 1) we grew up/started jobs/went to college and therefore, had less time on our hands, and 2) this particular mall went downhill. Regarding #2, it was unreal. Leaky ceilings; a weird odor that began to permeate the hallways; the closing of the movie theater that we loved; the closing of several of those above-mentioned stores; and a new swell of teenagers that, although younger than us, inspired a bit of trepidation. In other words, they didn’t seem, uh, that nice. Anyway, needless to say, mall visits went from few and far between to not at all. In the end, the mall was closed down almost completely, with the exception of the Target, Macy’s, and JC Penney’s stores that remained open and unaffected by the smelly odors, leaky ceilings, and scary teens. Rumors abounded that new condos would come in place of the once-popular mall; we also heard that a new mall would come with new stores and a completely new look. Personally, I was happy to see it go after all those years.

And then it re-opened this past weekend.

It was insane. Me and a good friend decided to check it out. I can tell you that we ran the halls like we were mad. We oohed and aahed at the sophisticated layout. At the Michael Kors store (we’ll discuss that in another post); at the White House/Black Market; at the Nordstrom Rack soon to come. The new mall is classy and elegant and aims for a similar clientele and I like it. Not that I have anything against frightening teens, but I’m currently at Stage Clutch-My-Pearls these days and would prefer not to run into sketchy characters while shopping. Anyway, it was a bit surreal, to be back in the place where a teenage Square Peg spent many an evening and weekend; I also worked at the mall during my freshman/ sophomore year of college. Before things went south and I abandoned the place like day old bread, I would also spend evenings just walking the mall. I loved everything about it. Now that school is back in session and the days are getting shorter, my evening walks around the track of the local high school are becoming less and less. I look forward to returning to my mall walking, once the hoopla ends and the grand re-opening crowds die down a bit. I look forward to spending some of my autumn evenings returning to window shopping, actual shopping, people watching, and dinners for one. Good times, indeed.