GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS
- Wade Peebles
- Jan 14
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 15
The boyz woke me up just before daybreak, well, I say the boyz, but it is usually lil Merle who wakes me up. He does not always need to go out, but he really, really wants to go out. Lil Merle would like to be an outside dog with inside dog privileges. Babee Conway is his polar opposite. I was thinkin last evening about shopping malls, and how they have changed drastically or closed since their heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. Oglethorpe Mall in Savannah, Regency Mall in Augusta, and the Macon Mall were favorites, and Statesboro and Dublin Malls would do in a pinch. Swainsboro was equidistant from Dublin and Statesboro, dead center on US 80 between both towns and their malls. Dublin was always the last choice though, because of what a pain it has always been to drive through. If you ask anyone not from Laurens County if they enjoy passing through or going to Dublin, you will get a resounding, NO! The courthouse in the middle of the road and more traffic lights than Carter's got liver pills, it is a dreaded destination. We love you Dublin folks, but you know! Statesboro was never a joy to drive in but Dublin was worse, but Statesboro is beginning to be another "gret-big pain in the hiney," too. My favorite mall was Augusta's Regency Mall, it had the shops we liked, and the food court was good, and with two stories, it had almost anything we wanted. It was on the south side of Augusta so it was not necessary to drive into old Augusta. That mall and others developed a nice culture, Regency was nice but "homey," until the "homies" took it over and destroyed it. It was a community actually, and older folks came just to walk indoors for exercise, and many enjoyed sitting on the benches just watching the people go by. Husbands did not mind going to the mall with their wives, because they would sit in a favorite location to people watch, satisfied right there until she came back and they had a good meal together. Augusta Mall came later and is still in operation but at least one murder there has tarnished its shiny image. I guess online shopping is one reason for mall's diminished presence now, but as I said earlier, the day came when thugs decided they liked the malls and none have been the same since. Good folks were intimidated and stayed away in droves. The good shops and eating places folded, and head shops and low-class businesses took over. A criminal element thrived. Regency closed and the others are mostly shadows of their former selves. Walden Books, B. Dalton Bookseller, Pier 1, Spencer's, Radio Shack, and other interesting stores went away, Orange Julius followed, as did most of the eating places we liked. The great old-school cafeterias that had opened new locations in malls, likewise faded away. I am a recluse, curmudgeon, hermit, and solitudinarian, but if there was still a mall as we enjoyed back then, I would go...well, maybe once, for old times' sake.
The last few years, if I went to the mall, Savannah or Oglethorpe, I would visit whatever anchor store interested me. Rarely have I gone to stroll the mall like I once did. Years ago, I went in every store, but the stores have little for the over teens crowd.
Good afternoon Wade and the boyz. Most of the stores have left the Mall in Athens. Belk’s is still there, which surprises me. Most of the stores have gone to Watkinsville, where you have to walk outside or drive your car from one place to another. Not my cup of tea!!!