5/22/07

Over 60 Stores!



That right there is the old Northwood Mall sign. Miss Trashahassee, another local blogger who knows what was and what is, scanned it in for me from a 1976 Godby yearbook. That mall played a major part in my life until it finally just ran out of steam and became state offices.

My sister took ballet there every week, and my dad and I would hit the book store and the Orange Julius while she learned how to keep her leotard from riding up (or whatever it is young girls learn in dance class). Crystal Connection, that sweet-smelling hippie haven, got its start as a kiosk at Northwood. There used to be an old man who would sit in the back of the Lucy Ho's on the first floor and eat box after box of rice candy. He would give the prizes (little plastic toys back then, not just strange stickers) to all us kids. And, of course, the public library had a "temporary" stay in the basement there for 13 years. I come from a family of readers, so we probably went down there at least once a week.

Thanks for the picture, MT! I owe ya one.

2 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

We did go to that library a lot. Tony/Denise worked there. I was always blown away by her fine and fancy dress.
Also, J-Byrons was the anchor store in that mall. Bill Vines was the manager and had a big office with red carpeting where he did his managerial tasks and smoked a pipe. Of tobacco!
Good times, good times.
AND! Do you remember that underneath the sign that Miss Trashahassee sent you a picture of, they always planted lovely gardens of collards and lettuces and such? Those days are gone forever.

Miss Trashahassee said...

Naw, you don't owe me nothin!

We played on the escalator every chance we got until someone ran us off. Same thing with the elevator in Mendelson's.

Really cool store: Newberry's.

Everybody got their Levi's straight-leg jeans at FRM.

I had my first payin' job at the Northwood Mall at Mendelson's as a gift-wrapper at Christmastime. Fun!

I loved the Lucy Ho's and the way they fixed eggrolls -- loose and kind of greasy. They don't make 'em like that anymore, I don't think (or at least not anywhere I've been lately).

My Mema worked at Turner's and later Rheinauer's as an alterationist.

1980 prom: Dinner at the Silver Slipper.

And everybody in town posed for a portrait downstairs at Olan Mills at least once.

I could go on and on and on ...

BFF,
Miss T