I'm so old I Remember when:

[Evadig]

I remember what we did there: arcade, bookstore, toy store, pizza, frozen yogurt, movies, clothes/accessories shopping, and flirting with the groups of boys who also hung out there.

Our mall also had indoor rides like this double decker carousel.

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Our mall when I was a kid had a nice old carousel like that. I loved it, always pretended I was riding Trigger .

 

[MROO]

Tucson still has at least one mall open, I think, and it's a very popular place to exercise when it's hot outside. Groups and individuals power walk around inside it. The mall even allows dogs. They open the mall an hour before the businesses open so exercisers can get in there and do their thing.

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I am the reason our one remaining mall has a "No Pets" sticker on all entrances. It was Christmastime and our mall had a gorgeous Santa. Everybody else took their children to to get pictures with him, and I was no different. So I put a red jingle-bow in my little girl's tiny whale spout ponytail and took her to get "First Christmas" pictures. It just so happened that my "baby" had four legs and for some reason, the mall staff objected.
They were NOT nice about it, but I insisted that I was allowed. I had checked all the entrances the day before. I even checked the mall's website to see if there was a policy stated. There was not a "No Pets" sign anywhere. Security tried to tell me it was mall policy not to allow pets, but when I asked him to show it to me, he couldn't find it!
So, my tiny little Shih Tzu trotted happily through the mall in her Christmas bow and got her First Christmas photo.
That was on Saturday. Sunday afternoon I went back to mall to actually do some shopping. There was a shiny "No Pets" sticker on the door! I'm willing to bet there was one on every entrance, but didn't bother to check. I chuckled through that entire visit. We'd left our mark!
For the record, Santa loved it and promised a special treat in her stocking ... and he didn't disappoint.

 

[jxp]

I remember..slug bugs.. Hopefully you didn't get smacked too hard.
I drove my Aunt and Uncle's around for a short time while in California back in the early 70's.
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I taught my kids they were Hug Bugs. When there's 7 years between the oldest and the youngest , they are most definitely NOT slug bugs.

 

[tripletfeb]

Unfortunately, "today's youth" are part of the reason we no longer have malls. Two of the first malls around here had to close because of the rising cost of security. Shoplifting and vandalism were bad enough, but when "hanging out at the mall" morphed into weekly fights and stabbings, management sold the land. The malls were razed and both sites sprouted housing developments. The big mall near me was taken down and is now a fancy strip shopping center with separate big box buildings. We were before the "hanging out" era, but nearly everyone had summer jobs there - and the Real Santa was always there through Christmas ... he was beautiful!

We still have malls here in northern Ohio. There are two big ones about a half hour away from me. And they still have mall walkers and teenagers hanging out in them. I hate going to the mall and only go twice a year, when I have to get my wedding and engagement ring inspected