Yea there's another one for the obituaries on deadmalls.com but we knew it was coming.



Pretty much ever since 1994 it's been downhill for that place. I remember when they had two movies theaters one inside the mall and a General Cinema Sixplex outside across the street. The most memorable movie that I saw inside was Ghostbusters and I think the last film I saw in there was The Return of Shaft, in which my friend Bill and I were the only people in the place. We went because we were denied admittance to some rated R movie across the street and we went to see Shaft II just because it was rated R for the principle alone just to be rebellious I guess. Although i do remember seeing Chevy Chase in European Vacation with my Dad one night and I though it was so cool that we were in the Mall when it was closed, approximately 10-11 at night.

There were other things that I remember about the place. When I was a kid there were these pits in the middle of the common hallway in which you could go down and sit. They were for the most part outside of Jenss and if you go way back the pet store. Yea, Jenss the place were my Grandma would take me to go buy "nice" clothes that kind of made me feel out of place in comparison to the way the other kids were dressed at school. I guess I didn't appreciate being well dressed and preppy until much later on in life when I had a better grasp on who I was as a person.

But going about crazy stores in the place, I even remember in the late 80's very early 90's they even had a Gap in the place. You can't forget those guidoesque stores like Chess King selling Z Cavaricci where they had bad 80's music playing like Taylor Dayne and really push sales people working strictly on commission and bad hairspray.

My personal favorite was York Steak house (WIKIPEDIA - York Steak House) in it's many incarnations of layout. I just remember going there with my Late Grandmother and I think it was one of the first places where I ever seen a automated change dispenser from a cash register. Since back in the day I don't think they even had a real food court until the early 90's.

Other than that there was the McCory's which always sold junk except for the brief moment in time when they had a music store what leased space from them. On another note, they did have a cafeteria next in McCory's that did have an ICEE machine as well.

Other things that I can remember that stick out in my head were the crazy 70's fountain in the place that had a bridge over it and Waldenbooks which seemed to be there the entire time that I can recall.

In coming back from my little Thanksgiving excursion over to Canada the bridge was pretty busy for a Thursday night. Then I realized, they are coming over for the Black Friday Event over at the Fashion Outlets in Niagara Falls. Yes in a half hour they are going to open the doors to the madness.

The ironic part is from the info that a friend of mine's sister who is a manger @ Pac Sun in that mall they did this at the request of the CANADIANS!!! Since they always complained that once they got over the bridge all the good bargains were gone. Yes I'm Canadian but I find it wrong they they come over request an earlier start time and make the poor people in retail take a quick nap after dinner and go into work right NOW.

The reason why my small family went over there today for dinner was just for the fact that I didn't want to feel guilty in exploiting someone's labor to serve me a meal on a Holiday. To them it's just another day, for us it's a pretty sacred holiday & the Midnight madness just reinforces to me why X-mas is just nothing but an economic indicator on the economy. "What was Wal-Mart's Same Store Sales Projection?" "A cold holiday season will result in a bigger bottom line as people snap up winter coats & accessories"

I'm just glad I'm pretty much Christmas to my family is very much a quiet event. To be out there in a few hours smacking people around to save a few bucks to show how generous, aka how much you love someone is just not me.