Mall Stories?
Jek gave me a idea from a comment. I know a lot of our community is from the Oklahoma area,( sorry Seattleites) so Anybody got any good stories related to any of our malls? That will be going away soon, or even those that will survive the e-commerce revolution. (Penn Square, Quail Springs, Sooner Fashion(Norman),Heritage Park, or Crossroads.
And yes MR you have to tell the story of the Black Challenger and the Crossroads Parking lot.
October 3rd, 2010 at 11:01 am
And I guess I’ll start.
On the 1st date I had in high school we went to the Heritage Park Cinema, Saw Star Trek The Motion Picture. Had Dinner at Chi Chi’s and then cruised the mall for a while. God how pathetically boring.
The 1st movie that me and the current Mrs. J.J. went to was also at Heritage Park Cinema, Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. Only because we had free tickets, I would not have paid to see that piece of *#!&
I remember when Crossroads opened, the family went to check out this “Mall” thing, I had a Orange Julius and have been addicted ever since. That is still the 1st thing I look for whenever I go into any mall.
October 3rd, 2010 at 12:08 pm
I spent lots of time of my youth at Heritage Park. The biggest part initially was in the arcade. Heritage didn’t have the greatest games, but any games trumped shopping with Mom.
Movies: I saw my favorite childhood movie there: Tron. Also, I saw my first movie alone in a theater (and maybe only): Popeye with Robin Williams. I initially thought I was in the wrong theater. I missed the opening and the “Sweet Haven” song was going on. That movie was quite different than I expected and I liked it quite a bit by the end.
JJ: Don’t you mean El Chico instead of Chi Chi’s? We ate there quite a bit. We used to call the Sopapillas “Sofa Pillows”. They were tasty.
I liked Orange Julius too. Not sure I would now. I wonder what chemical concoction they use to get the hint of wang.
October 3rd, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Yeah, I meant El Chico. Chi Chi’s was another MWC restaurant that I went to alot also.
October 3rd, 2010 at 3:32 pm
More on Heritage: I was fascinated by the shopping experience of Service Merchandise. I liked the idea of walking around with paper and pencil creating my order. The climax was when you got to see your order items coming down a conveyor belt at the back of the store! I imagined lots of machinery picking and sorting through my order I had just placed. The reality was probably some disgruntled employee scoffing at my purchase choices while tossing them on the belt.
October 4th, 2010 at 10:09 am
I spent a lot of time in the arcades at heritage and crossroads as well. For a few years I worked early mornings on Saturday got off around 10:00 and would go to heritage walk around until the pizza place opened (can’t remember the name) they had tables with coins laminated into them. I would order a medium pepperoni pizza the first time the guy tried to give me a hard time about pizza for breakfast and I had to explain that I had just got off work. Eaten pizza and hitting the arcade what a wonderful way to kill a Saturday morning. Spent a lot of money in the hobby shops at crossroads any one remember the names of those shops.
October 4th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Since the J-Man requested “The Snow Bank” story, here it is, as best I can remember…… Jek and I were at Crossroads mall (can’t remember if anyone else was with us) the day after a BIG snowstorm….. They had graded the parking lot, but, there was still an inch or two of ice/snow on the asphalt, along with these humongous piles of snow everywhere….. We decided to play “Spin the Challenger” – same concept as “Spin the Bottle” only with a 330 HP, 3,000 LB. car on ice….. We had completed quite a few really good spins and were in one of the exit lanes where you had to stop and then make a 90 degree turn to exit the parking lot….. Well, still hyper from all the spinning, I goosed it as I made the turn, of course, the rear wheels broke loose and we crashed into this huge bank of snow….. Luckily, the snow was super soft due to the bright Oklahoma sun, so, we ended up with the passenger rear quarter of the Challenger buried in the snow bank – STUCK – wet snow is like a big suction cup…. Even with the “Sure-Grip” rear-end (both wheels pulling), We were spinning, but, not going anywhere….. Again, Luckily, along came some poor souls (I don’t remember how many, I think about 4 or 5) who volunteered to try and rock and push us out…. By this time the Oklahoma sun had made slush out of the ice/snow on the pavement, so, I was going from first gear to reverse, rocking the Challenger, when, swoosh, just like that, it was FREE!!…. I then looked in my rear view mirrors and I noticed, with a shock, that all the volunteers where covered from head to toe with wet snow, slush, and ice chunks….. I hadn’t realized until then that I was spinning the rear tires so much rocking the car back and forth that I was throwing snow goo all over everything….. I know I should have backed-up and apologized, but, I thought they might want some revenge, so, I waved, hollered, “Thank You!”, floored it, and made a hasty exit….. So, I hereby officially apologize to those poor good humanitarians, who looked like Frosty the Snowman and friends….. I don’t think they were waving back to us – looked more like the “Flying Fickle Finger of Fate”….. That’s it……
October 6th, 2010 at 10:24 am
Robo: The only pizza place I remember in Heritage was La Pizza. I only ever ordered by the slice. I liked the pizza quite a bit and it was always entertaining to watch them spin the dough.
MR: The details of the parking lot incident are fuzzy for me, but I do recall having fun and then being—let’s say thankful–to those who helped. Presumably I was too young to be out there pushing. Good thing or I might have been one of your targets as well. SWOOSH!
October 6th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
La Pizza was the place they had very good pizza. They hand tossed their dough and they had those pizza ovens with the hot bottoms that the pizza cooks on. Kind of grills the crust and bakes the toppings now I’m making myself hungry.
A story about Crossroads. I Lived near crossroads in high school. One day I was sitting in the parking lot doing home work and listening to the radio. One of my speakers stopped working. The drivers side speaker just quit. I was driving a 50 chevy pickup, not at all uncommon for stuff to stop working on that truck. It was a rolling visit to the parts store. So I decided to fix the speaker, better to fix a speaker then to do home work. So I get out and stick my head under the dash and start working on the speaker. I figured out that the wire was cut, I found one end and was looking for the other end, when the mall parking security guard said, that I should try to steel a better truck. I had to explain that I was trying to fix the speaker. After I had showed him my ID, registration, insurance form, etc. He finally said that he know I was not trying to steel the truck because the keys were hanging in the ignition, and he was giving me a hard time because I wasn’t supposed to be working on a truck in the parking lot. I promised to leave and he let me go with a warning.
October 6th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
That’s a good story Robo. I hadn’t heard that.
I forgot to mention that when I played video games at Heritage, it was before they had a dedicated arcade. The best spot was in a small game room in the back of Montgomery Wards. They only had 3 machines. I think one of them was Moon Patrol–that’s one of my faves. I spent many a hour in that yellow, brightly lit, otherwise empty room. Game on!
October 7th, 2010 at 10:01 am
I always loved Lunar Lander – I can’t remember if that was an arcade game or a Commodore 64 only game….. I remember playing it a lot on the 64, but, it seems to me that it was originally a arcade game….. Anyone remember?……
October 7th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
MR: Lunar Lander was definitely an arcade game first. They had one at the go-kart place next to Family Fun Park. What was the name of that place? I think it started with an ‘S’.
Check out the stats on Lunar Lander at old-computers.com. I had forgotten how the thrust controller worked — it’s a big lever!
October 8th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
I remember it now!… Thanks, Jek….. The big game room you were talking about was Malibu Racing….. Along with the big game room, you could race go-kart sized Indy race cars on a really tight race track…. Unfortunately, you raced for time only, so you were alone on the track racing against time – No smashing your friends into the tires/bales of hay as on a go-kart track, but, it was a lot of fun, even if it was rather expensive at the time…… We spent lots of time there…..
October 10th, 2010 at 9:40 am
I think any one from around OKC at that time spent at lest some time in Malibu they had several air hockey tables (my first time). I never got to race one of there Indy go carts but watching other people I think those things could go about 60 mph. Any one remember Omega race the video game that was my favorite.
October 10th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Yup, I remember “Omega Race”….. I didn’t play it that much, so I don’t remember the controls/layout of the arcade game….. Jek is the all-time arcade expert, along with being the Pac-Man Master of the Universe…..
October 11th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
i put $50 into star castle….then a kid showed me how to beat it. never went back.
October 12th, 2010 at 1:36 am
Malibu! That’s it! How could I forget? It seems so obvious now.
Anon: I had to look up Star Castle. That’s another oldie. Did the kid show you how to run up on it and fire at the same time like in this video?
October 12th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
I remember that one, too, Anon….. You spent $50 Bucks on it, that’s a lot of quarters!…… It was fun to play, though…… Thanks, Jek for the screen shots, brings back a lot of memories……
October 16th, 2010 at 12:30 am
Jek,
Sorry I missed your post……………yes, exactly like that.