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Oak Park Mall (1982)
Out On The YouTube ^

Posted on 02/20/2021 12:05:29 PM PST by SamAdams76

This is an excellent 1982 documentary of mall culture in America.

Could it have been so long ago (nearly 40 years!)?

Before the Internet. Before cell phones. MTV was just getting started and most youngsters didn't even know what it was, much less have it.

I remember those days well. The mall was the place for teens and young adults to hang out. It was where boys and girls dated. They'd start off at the Orange Julius at the food court and make their way to the multiplex, where they might see "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" or maybe "ET". Then they might end at the video arcade to sling a few quarters into Pac-Man and Space-Invaders before finding a makeout spot in the corridor where the Things Remembered and Radio Shack stores were while waiting for their parents to come pick them up.

Maybe you are thinking by now that I know of this mall culture all too well...anyway, check out this video. Excellent time capsule of American culture in the early 1980s, just as President Reagan was turning around the economy.


TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: america; culture; malls
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To: P.O.E.
I lived on Chestnut St. between Quincy and Oakwood Ave.
61 posted on 02/20/2021 4:50:46 PM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: pinkandgreenmom

Wow. Didn’t know they had one up there.


62 posted on 02/20/2021 4:51:28 PM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: Inyo-Mono

Also known as “mall hair.”


63 posted on 02/20/2021 5:03:13 PM PST by rightwingintelligentsia (Democrats: The perfect party for the helpless and stupid, and those who would rule over them.)
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To: KingLudd
The SunValley Shopping Center in Concord, Ca. was a big deal when it opened in ‘67.

SunValley Shopping Center

64 posted on 02/20/2021 5:31:53 PM PST by csvset (tolerance becomes a crime when attached to evil)
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To: SamAdams76

Read later.


65 posted on 02/21/2021 3:12:13 AM PST by NetAddicted (Just looking)
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To: jmacusa

I lived on Devon, not far from the North Arlington border.

I miss the local butcher shops (meat pies, pasties, bridies, etc.) Is the Argyle still there, I wonder - best fish & chips this side of the pond. Went to a Burns’ Supper there one year - what a hoot.

IIRC, there was a great bar towards the middle of town with a shuffleboard table.


66 posted on 02/21/2021 4:11:11 AM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: P.O.E.
Nah. All the Scot bakeries are gone. The only thing in English in Kearny anymore are the street signs. Was the bar you're talking about on Kearny Ave. across from the library?
67 posted on 02/21/2021 4:29:02 AM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: jmacusa

I think so. I used to car pool to work with a group of Scots & Irishmen, so we usually made several stops on the way home.


68 posted on 02/21/2021 4:34:52 AM PST by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: P.O.E.

Oh man, now I’m going to go nuts trying to think of the name of that bar.


69 posted on 02/21/2021 6:16:19 AM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: entropy12
Shopping?

Malls were for hanging out and girl watching!

70 posted on 02/21/2021 6:51:12 AM PST by G Larry (Authority is vested in those to whom it applies.)
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To: SamAdams76

Yeah, the “Tape world” thing caught my eye too, especially being a hi-fi salesman between 1976 and 1983.

there was a SNL skit where they visit a tape store in a dying mall. The joke was that the store only specialized in the “sticky kind”, and not the magnetic kind.


71 posted on 02/21/2021 8:46:06 AM PST by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
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