Question for the GenXers on the forums....

Wrecked Neck wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

One funny memory I have…

Out here in California we used to have a department store called Mervyns. Long before I discovered my love of metal music I liked the popular radio rock of the day. So anyways… sometime in the mid- 80’s I wanted this black Duran Duran shirt but my born again Christian aunt had a problem with it. She thought they were a bad Satan loving band. The PMRC must’ve had a bigger influence than I thought. Hungry Like the Wolf for sure… nude chicks in Rio!  

But now that I think about it… she may have been right. Look at Katy Perry. She’s got Illuminati symbols all over her image, music and videos.

Mervyns always brings back one of the most embarrassing days of my young pre-teen life. My dad was taking me there to go school clothes shopping, and as we're walking in the front door, he blurts out "son, do you know what a vagina is?" I swear every woman in the store stopped and looked at me. Yeah I knew what one was, I had already found his porn stash by this point in life lol Doesn't mean I wanted to have "the talk" in the middle of the damn mall FFS!!!

Troublezone wrote:

You did tell the story before. But I don’t mind… and maybe others that didn’t know your story will read it.

I don't wanna turn into that old guy who keeps repeating the same shit over and over again. Oh wait, I guess I am that old guy.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

You did tell the story before. But I don’t mind… and maybe others that didn’t know your story will read it.

I don't wanna turn into that old guy who keeps repeating the same shit over and over again. Oh wait, I guess I am that old guy.

What? No rocking chair on the porch stories?

Troublezone wrote:

What? No rocking chair on the porch stories?

I got a porch, but no rockin' chair. Now git off mah lawn!

From about 1981-1985 when the mall became a thing, me and my friends would get dropped off at the mall by one of the various neighborhood mothers. Usually, it involved having a bunch of quarters at one's disposal for video games. We had one nice sizable arcade headquarters, which was totally dark. It was like entering a haunted house, where the only available light was due to the arcade games. I never remember being disappointed with the selection of arcade games. My go to arcade games during this period were Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. The sound of all the games when you entered the arcade was pure nirvana. I wasn't great at video games, so my roll of quarters never lasted long enough, but it was still great. I compare it to betting on horses at the OTB. You have a limited amount of money to spend or have set a limit for yourself, yet you normally walk away with a smile. Then again, I'm not a degenerate gambler, so there's that...

When I wasn't in one of the two mall arcades, the other one being in Cinemark Theaters (3 inside and 7 in the parking lot theater) in the mall, I liked to go to KB Toys. I was still in that action figure stage from 11-14 and toys will just always be great. Once the testosterone started kicking in sometime during this period, I then became a fashion guy (even if I couldn't afford most). My mother was always the practical shopper. She would find great deals at T.J Maxx or other discount stores. My mother was a fashionista back in the day, so I totally trusted her. She was one of those women in the 80's who worked with other ladies on their colors. That was such an 80's thing. It basically suggested what colors (based off the seasons) were your colors. My mother was a go to lady, when it came to her clothing and decor. I miss my mother by the way. I was such a momma's boy! Anyways, she knew the popular brands and much of the time could find it elsewhere for cheaper. I on the other hand had a more expensive eye. I liked perusing through Wilson's Leather, County Seat, The Gap (still here...ha...ha), Chess King, Merry Go Round and others I've forgotten about.

Wilson's leather was my biggest pipe dream of a store. We were part of the burgeoning middle class of the 80's. We lived in our first brand new home in 1979 when I was 8 and we always ate very well. We seldom went on vacations, very rarely had cool automobiles and dressed modestly. So, a leather coat of $250 or more was not a part of the equation, especially with a growing teen. I could still dream, and I did. My mother, who was the consummate housewife extraordinaire was an avid "Days of Our Lives" fan. There would be countless hours, where she would be doing laundry, cleaning the house or ironing shirts to that all so famous opening of "Like sands through the hourglass... Though I would never admit it to my friends, I watched, and my mother would share updates with me when I got back from school. Anyways, for any Drake Hogestyn fans (Roman/John Black) out there, you know about the cool leather coat the man used to wear on his first year or two on the show. It was a cool dark brown (almost burnt looking) jacket. As soon as I saw that jacket, I wanted that fucker! Hence, Wilson's leather being such an impactful store for me at such a young age. I eventually would get a leather jacket at or around 18 years of age from my first "real" girlfriend." Unfortunately, it was not as cool as Roman Brady's.

The other store that everybody went to back in the day and still does, was Spencer's. What's cool about Spencer's, is they never detracted from their humbling beginnings. If anything, they've doubled down on the oddness which is their store and I still love going in there. My girlfriend and I are huge Halloween people. It's not a Hobby Lobby or Michael's per se when it comes to Halloween stuff, but it has some cool garb. I'm getting sidetracked. To say I studied the poster flipper would be an understatement! I knew exactly what was available and I knew exactly what they added with every return trip. Unlike today, where they usually have one poster flipping carousel, back in the day, my Spencer's had at least three. Whether it be black light, band, sports related or scantily dressed women in provocateur outfits, I loved them all. My favorite of the scantily dressed was the classic Heather Thomas bikini shot in pink, with her thumb underneath one of the straps. Wow! Funny enough, she wasn't even my favorite on The Fall Guy. That honor went to Markie Post (R.I.P.)! That scene with her in her blue bikini, might have been even better.

The best times involved the music stores and at one point, we had three of them by 1985 or 1986. My favorite three in order NRM (National Record Mart), Disc Jockey and then Musicland. It was great perusing through all the vinyl and the new format which were C.D's. I was a tape guy at this time, so I spent probably more time with that. I didn't get my first C.D until 1987, as they were just too expensive for someone with my limited spending capacity. These stores were also great for posters of your favorite bands and other accoutrements.

If I had any money left over from playing video games or purchasing that rare cassette tape on my own, we ended the day at an eatery. Though I remember the food court always being filled with eateries, I don't remember much that stood out. Even though the mall was always thriving, eateries were rotating in and out. One in particular which is still there I believe and at the time had two locations in the mall, was/is Luca Pizza. There was nothing like hanging with your pals, grabbing a cheap slice of pizza and a drink, while waiting for one of the various mothers, who picked us up after a couple of hours of fun. What a fun liberating time as a kid from age 11-14! We had loving parents, who weren't the helicopter parents you see way too often these days, who are more interested in being their kid's best friend, instead of being that person who is rearing them.

I'm not sure what the golden age of the mall was for me. In some sense it was the being dropped off period in my life from 81-85, but in many ways, it was 85 or later period. I always had friends who were a year or more older than me. Once they got their licenses, there was even more freedom at my doorstep. It made that small town seem a bit bigger. Though we still liked to venture in the mall during these years, cruising the mall started to take over. I'm not going to say that we were instrumental for getting a rule enacted of one could be warned or ticketed if they were seen going around the mall more than 3 times consecutively, but I'm pretty sure we were the hamsters/gerbils in this ruling. It was a great way to meet people, meet girls especially (most of the ones that were out of our league) and be safe doing this. I guess at some point, some cruisers must have forgotten that they had to yield to unsuspecting shoppers. Someone always has to ruin a good thing, and this just happened to be our good thing.

^^^Nice dude, brings back a lot of memories for me there. Sounds like we had similar childhoods, except I never got into the fashion stuff, and was happy with jeans and a shirt. Also, I was mostly a vinyl guy myself, until CD's came out. I had tons of tapes, but most were recorded from my vinyl or stolen from a store called Wonder World, which is kinda like a Target I guess before there was such a thing. And Spencers is still a cool store I stop in whenever I see one. I rarely buy anything from there, but it's fun to look at all the funny shit they have.

So not really OT, but here's a funny story involving the mall I used to go to called The Meadows Mall. One day ditching school, just got done smoking some weed. Almost got arrested for smoking it in fact. So anyways, after our run in with the police, and him telling us to get our asses to school, we promptly went towards school, waved at it, ran into another friend who was also ditching, and then all piled into his car and headed to the mall. Cop be damned!

So we get to the mall, and decide to eat first. Go to McDonalds,  grab our food and eat. While in the middle of eating, I suddenly get the urge to punch my friend for no reason. Just something we did from time to time, punch each other. Never in the face or anything, just shoulder, arm, or in this case chest. So he takes a bite, puts his burger down for a second, and I strike! Hit him hard as hell, he then hit me back and we laughed and continue to eat.

Next thing I know, my friend turns pale as a ghost, sweat starts rolling down his forehead and face, turns ice cold to the touch, and then he slumps over and just drops his burger not moving. Me and my other friend Rick start freakin out yelling for a doctor, when some lady says "get him some milk." She looked like she knew what she was talking about so I run up to the counter to get milk. The lady at the counter has no idea what's going on, but she grabs a milk and then starts to ring me up. I just grabbed it and said something like "bitch I aint go no fuckin money, my friends over there dying,and he needs milk!" Snatch it out of her hand and run back to him, where he's just sitting there eating his burger like nothing happened.

So of course I'm like WTF??? He has no clue what's going on, just eating. My other friend after coming out of his silent shock of what just occurred, finally says we gotta go, they going to call the cops on us. So we grab whats left of out food, or what we can carry, I toss the milk back to the lady at the counter, and we hall ass out of there.

For months we didn't know what that shit was. Then one day in health class, they were describing the symptoms of shock. Turns out I stopped his heart for a few seconds, and he went into shock. Moral of the story? Don't punch your friends in the chest, cause bad shit can happen lol