My Life and Dreams

Sunday, June 14, 2020

September 20, 2016- The Mall

We used to like Menlo Mall before they remodeled it and made it more upscale in the early 1990s. There were a lot of shoe stores in it, including The Wild Pair. I got shoes similar to the ones that I saw in Seventeen magazine there. They are Ciao brand and have Velcro instead of laces. I actually still have but don’t wear them.

We also bought 5 nature scene paintings at an Art Gallery store. 4 of these are a set of the seasons. The big one is hanging in our living room and the others were in the hallway but 2 of them got knocked down and the frames broke. This place was near Nathans where we would sometimes eat.

The anchor stores were Bamberger’s which became Macy’s and also Alexander’s. I got my first Swatch at Macy’s in 1983. JC Penney was there too before it moved to the newly built long wing of Woodbridge Center Mall. I had gotten a couple of Christmas pins in that store.

Dad bought me the 1984 Topps Yankees set at a card and collectibles show at this mall. They had a nice candy store at it too.

Woodbridge Center used to have 3 music stores- Sam Goody, Tape World and Musicland. There were 2 bookstores- Waldenbooks and B. Dalton. Anchor stores included Steinbach’s, Orbachs, A&S, Sterns and Fortunoff through the years. The latter was the most recent to close and it’s now a Boscov’s.

They had an iron on transfer t-shirt shop but I don’t remember if we ever bought anything there. We did get some of these down the shore. We liked getting our knick- knacks and some stuffed animals at Little Elegance. I got my ears pierced at the Piercing Pagoda when I was 9 or 10 years old.

I worked at Curtains Up for a year in the late 80s and at A&S for only a couple of months or maybe even less. I was mostly in the Juniors Department fitting room there.

We mainly ate at Wendy’s, Chick Fil-A, or the Ponderosa. The latter was mostly when Aunt Ann, Missy and Grandma would come up to spend the day Christmas shopping with Mom, Mike and I. We always had such fun doing this. One time, Missy’s shoe fell off and landed in the fountain of the lower level.

The coconut haystacks from Joanne’s Nuthouse were delicious. I liked the dark chocolate ones, of course. I’m pretty sure that Mom and Aunt Ann liked the milk chocolate kind. We loved the Swedish fish too.

The malls that we would go to in Aunt Ann territory were Burlington Center, Moorestown and Quakerbridge. I think that the one in PA near Sesame Place is called Oxford Valley. Mom, Aunt Ann, Missy and I went there after staying in that boring theme park for only a little while. We were there as part of a Girl Scout trip. The mall was much more fun.

I’ve also been to a couple of malls in North Jersey with Matt- Paramus Park and Willowbrook. I’ve been to Bridgewater Commons and Short Hills too. I’ve only gone to the Cherry Hill Mall twice when they had collectibles shows there. I got Mike his” Doctor Who” shirt in either 1990 or 1991.

I was more of a mall rat in the late 1990s and 2000 than I ever was before then. It would have been for the best if I had avoided them or not gone there much. I could have saved lots of money to use on more important things. I would sometimes go overboard on the spending because of my depression and anxiety. This was not a good form of therapy for me.