Mall Shopping

This year, as most of us log onto the Internet to do our Christmas shopping, some of us will hop in the car and drive down the street to go to that once-grand institution of American consumer culture, the shopping mall.

Obviously, malls have seen a dramatic decrease in business since that behemoth Amazon came onto the shopping scene. But if you’re one of the few who plan to make the trek out into the real world, you’ll see that malls are still crowded with harried shoppers this time of year – well, at least that’s the situation here in the Kansas City metro area, where you’ll be forced to navigate a full parking lot just to get into Oak Park Mall in Overland Park.

When I was a teenager, I worked at the AMC Oak Park Mall 6 Theatres, as well as the Oak Park Plaza 6, just across the street. It was always a delight to see shoppers pass by the box office and make the impulse purchase of a movie ticket – a welcome break from the rigors of holiday shopping. The Oak Park Mall Theatres closed on New Year’s Eve 1996, making way for the American Girl doll store, which is now just a place where you go to vote in an election year.

Great Mall

The following year, in 1997, the Great Mall of the Great Plains opened in Olathe. The timing of this opening couldn’t have been worse, as it coincided with the rise of the Internet and online shopping themselves.

If you ever visited the Great Mall, you remember what an eyesore it was, leaving the shopper feeling like being dropped into an episode of “Romper Room.” The garish colors and liberal use of neon lighting gave the entire venue a very ‘90s feel, and the race-track floor design ideas that shoppers never seemed to fully embrace. The entire structure, from its exterior signage and other industrial-esque features jutting sharply out into the skyline, to its late-20th century color scheme of loud, harsh neon everywhere you looked on the inside, trapped the mall in a very specific time in architectural and interior design. The Great Mall has been closed since 2015.

Then again, the same may obviously be said of most malls that remain untouched by renovations – they exist as time capsules, windows into another decade

Halloween candies

Anytime of year, those of us with a sweet tooth can easily name the candies we always searched for within the depths of our plastic jack-o’-lantern after a night of trick-or-treating on Halloween. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Snickers bars. Skittles. Or those older favorites, such as fruit slices, Tootsie Rolls and caramel apple pops.

But I’d wager it’s just as easy for you to recall those candies you hated finding in your bucket – those sugary, unwelcome denizens of your Halloween haul. Sure, they still have their ardent defenders who will sing their praises, but they are just as widely disliked. As a kid, you knew to skip those houses that distributed these candies every year.

Listed below are just a few personal votes for entries on my “blech!” list. They might just be on yours, too.

Candy corn:

Although they are synonymous with the holiday of Halloween, these tiny nuggets of sugar are divisive because they’re overly sweet and their texture is akin to candle wax. Much like that one loud, slightly tipsy aunt or uncle who keeps crashing your Thanksgiving dinner the month after Halloween, I feel as if people simply keep candy corn on hand because they feel obligated to do so.

Black licorice:

Good & Plenty are an especially egregious entry on the “candies to be avoided” list, their delightful white and purple coating concealing a stomach-turning surprise of the worst kind. Also included in this category is the licorice-flavored Beemans Black Jack Gum, invented in the late 19th century, discontinued in the 1970s, and produced once again beginning in 1986. My late Aunt Cora loved Black Jack, and though the sight of those sticks of gum make me think fondly of her, the taste is something I’d rather forget.

If you’re a fellow hater of black licorice, you know exactly what I mean.

Sweetarts:

The modern-day, bite-sized version of the Necco Wafer (the king of horrid Halloween candies for more than 150 years), these pastel-colored, chalky tasting candies also have equal numbers of fans and detractors. You can get the same sensation eating bits of drywall sprayed with a light mist of something vaguely smelling like fruit. The bank where my parents did business for years used to give out a small roll of Sweetarts to kids who came in with their parents.

We all have our own memories of going to the movies – that place where you could sit in silence, in the dark, and laugh or cry with the characters onscreen, your own troubles melting away like the ice in the cup of soda you held in your hand. Maybe you were on a date, cozied up next to your first boyfriend or girlfriend, feeling her grip your hand tightly during a scary scene, or feeling him wrap his arm around you.

You can still relive those memories, thanks to vintage movie theaters in your area that have, thankfully, been preserved thanks to the funds and care by hard-working teams of people, lovers of both movies and history.

If you live in the Overland Park area, you well remember the original Glenwood Theatre, which opened its doors to the public in

November 1966, looked opulent and grand. Everything about the Glenwood was a feast for the senses – the scent of fresh popcorn popping, the employees clad in their vest-and-bow tie combo, the feel of velvet ropes under your fingers, the chatter of excited moviegoers.

The number of these small, independent movie theaters shrinks by the year as they compete with the convenience of home viewing. They need our help to continue bringing this magic to audiences. Showing your support with your spending dollars is perhaps the greatest way you can show your support.

Donating to them directly is even better. And many of these beloved gems of our community have boosted their fundraising efforts in the past few years, renting out auditoriums for personal screenings or hosting other events, such as musical acts.

New academic year

Though we’ll soon be enjoying the final vestiges of summer, there’s another big event about which to be excited: the beginning of a new academic year.

Parents, of course, will soon rejoice because their kiddos will finally be out of the house for a while, and the kiddos themselves will be back at school, learning and finding their way into good-natured mischief with their friends.

If you’re like me, there are things about school to which you always looked forward (Hello? Am I the only one here who actually enjoyed school lunch? Especially those little square pizzas?).

When getting ready for the new school year, there was plenty to enjoy. I remember that, around late July, my elementary school posted lists in the front windows of which students would be learning under which teacher. The day those class lists were posted, it felt like checking the call-back list for a big stage production – you heaved an audible sigh of relief upon seeing your name listed under Mrs. Finney’s class, and you quickly scanned the list to find out which of your friends would be joining you in that classroom.

Or maybe you uttered a groan when you found your name on Mrs. Altweis’ class list. The anticipation on that day was palpable, and you either went home feeling relieved or heavy with a sense of dread.

Shopping for school supplies

But the best part of getting ready for another school year was going shopping for school supplies. I was fortunate enough to grow up in the 1980s, when He-Man, the Thundercats and the Ghostbusters were all the rage among boys; the girls, meanwhile, had characters like Barbie, Rainbow Brite, and the Care Bears.

Thanks to the wonders of merchandising, these characters were seemingly everywhere – including notebooks, pencil cases, backpacks, lunch boxes, and Trapper Keepers (Do they still make those? Hmmm…I wonder…). These characters didn’t just help you make a new friend with similar interests, who watched intently as you withdrew your Smurfs pencil case from your backpack on the first day of school; they felt like status symbols that marked their owner as one of the cool kids.