TOD
Malls are such an interesting phenomenon. For me, they evoke the 1980s (and the '70s and '90s to somewhat lesser extents) like nothing else. It's funny how they've fallen out of favor, with many being converted back to regular unenclosed "shopping centers", while others are dressing themselves up and doing just fine in mall configuration. I can both laugh at the image of malls, and feel nostalgic for the ones I enjoyed spending time in.
My first was Severance Center in Cleveland Heights, and when visiting my parents in Cincinnati in those years, we'd go to Tri-County. When I first moved to L.A. and was living in Hollywood, I was hardly ever in a mall for several years -- though strangely enough, the one I went to for one specific reason was the Topanga Plaza, even though I never lived in the Valley. But is that the one that had carillon-type bells or some such on the building? Friends and I were there to eat in the Magic Pan, because one friend was working in the Beverly Hills location and in our spare time we'd go around and sample different Magic Pans.
Later, living in Palms, I started going to the Fox Hills Mall in Culver City, but once I moved to Redondo, my "main mall" was Del Amo Fashion Center, billed as the nation's largest. The year I lived in Chicago (Schaumburg, actually), it was Woodfield Mall, and during visits to our office in the outskirts of Philly, I got to know the King of Prussia Mall.
Back in L.A., I went to the Santa Monica Mall and paid a few visits to the Sherman Oaks Galleria of Valley Girl fame. Now, here in Connecticut, we have the Danbury Fair Mail which is one that has renovated nicely and can evoke, on an occasional visit, those glory mall days of yore.
