The Mall, 1970 to Now

For about twenty-five years, the most important building in town was a carpeted rectangle with a fountain in the middle and a parking lot you could land a plane in. You did not text anyone. You said you’d be by the fountain, and then you stood there wondering if your friends had switched fountains on you. There was always a second fountain. It was a trap. This is the enclosed mall from the 1970s through the 1990s, and whatever it is now. Victor Gruen invents it, hates the copies, and dies before the neon arcade. The eighties move in and refuse to leave. The nineties add a roller coaster and call it retail. Then the anchors leave and take the escalator with them. If you had a mall, you had a meeting point. Fountain, arcade, food court, the bench outside Spencer’s. Say it in the comments. I also want the name of the store that is gone, especially if you still have the bag.