Posted 6/24/2007 06:58:00 PM by Douglas

It was easy, growing up in the 80s, to identify with the emerging "mall culture" that would come to define a generation. Western Plaza had been around for fifteen years when Westgate sounded the death knell for the first mall I'd ever seen. Now, 39 years after Miss Western Plaza cut the ribbon at the grand opening, it's history. [Login: leavemealone Password: goaway]

There hasn't been much life at Western Plaza for a long time now unless you count Graham Central Station, which I don't because it's not part of the inner workings of the 39-year-old mall. It was beyond time for it to go, to unhook the life-support monitors, tear it down, and try something else.

I come to bury Western Plaza, but also to praise her. It may be hard for anyone under 30 to believe, but there used to be life in that old place. It opened with justified fanfare, a $13 million, 485,000-square-foot monstrosity on a 38-acre tract of land, with more than 30 retail stores that employed 750.

Yeah, there was Sunset Center and Wolflin Village - "We're at the center of everything!'' - but nothing like this.

This was the age of the early malls, and it was a place even a child didn't mind going with his mom. Open the door on a hot summer Saturday and a welcoming blast of cool air greeted you.

There was a sense of wonder, all these fountains shooting up, and all these stores right next to each other, and it was hard to see to the other end. This must have been how the space-age Jetsons shopped.

If my mom went to Sakowitz or Kline's or Zales, or wanted to cash in those S&H Green Stamps books, that's fine. My slice of heaven was Toys By Roy, you could spend hours in that place. Later it was Hasting's. Meet her at the fountains in an hour.

Holy crap, it's like this guy hung out with me and my brother! Meet me at the fountain in an hour!

It's a sad commentary in our disposable society that we throw away our TVs, our computers, our cars, and now our buildings when they get a few years on them and the next thing comes out. Not that everything is worth preserving, but ya know, you're never going to get an 100 year old building if you don't first have a 50 year old building.

I saw Back to the Future there in 1985 the day I got braces, and that's where we got our Sears brand knock-off Atari in 1981. But when Penney's moved out to Coulter, my mom (and everyone else's mom) kept driving past the Western St. exit on I-40. But no one can impugn the tastiness of a Orange Julius!