the end of an era

The Mall Era...........atleast its over for me.

As a child of the eighties i loved the mall (The Hickory Ridge one specifically). The mall was where I walked with my mother scoping out the jewelry counters and all the madonna-ish teenagers with their legwarmers and crunchy bangs. The mall was great, there was a carousel, a food court, fountains to throw money in. Who didn't love the mall back then...

But as I got older and into my teen years I discovered the outdoor shopping center :) Not the icky strip mall type but the well laid out, coffee shop and boutique filled stroll about kind. You know , the ones with wide sidewalks, nice fountains, and hefty price tags to match lol. There are no payday loan stores or pawn shops in sight. This is where I would go with my mom, my friends, anybody with a car......even when i had no cash and didnt need to buy anything. At that age i had no clue what the magnetism was but I was drawn to the shopping center (luv me sum Saddle Creek in Gtown Tenn). I know I'm not crazy because everybody else was their too. Back then I thought this place was just a needle in a haystack, the only one of its kind, a treasure for Tennesseans to enjoy. Then I met/married (hey it was fast) Beau and among all the things I learned that year (salsa is good, debt free is a realistic concept, way too many wrestling moves) I learned from my real estate developing mother in law that not only was my beloved shopping center not one of a kind, it was one of many and they arent shopping centers at all, they are "Lifestyle Centers".

I moved to Louisiana, then Alaska, then Arizona and there were no "Lifestyle Centers" to be found. I assume if they ever built one in La, it has long since sank in the swamp and all the gators ate up the designer duds. Alaska is just too cold. Im sure Arizona had one somewhere, but not near us, but then again, there wasn't much near us besides mountains, saguaro and a whole lotta pricky pear.

But then came the orders, and the movers, and all that jazz. I was headed to Colorado!! I had long since forgotten the joy of the lifestyle center. That magnetism never pulled me across state lines and eventually it faded all together. I became, once again, a maller. But wait, with Colorado came a new house, new colors, new things to see and the reappearance of the Lifestyle centers. As if that wasn't good enough, there is even one brought to you buy the same folks who built Saddle Creek. It looks the same , feels the same, is even set up in the same half moon shape perfect for people watchin!! even most of the same stores. Its been a busy few weeks but today I had a date with my daughter (and some Gymbucks burnin a whole in my pocket) and we headed out to Briargate.

I finally figured it out. That whole "Lifestyle" thing. It wasn't really about the shopping. It was a day together, sharing a melting ice cream cone on a bench. Dipping our napkins in the fountain to clean up the sticky blue mess (only later did i see the "reclaimed water" sign, "please dont touch" oops). We strolled along the sidewalk, did some window shopping, thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful weather. None of this could be done in a mall under icky fluorescent lighting being heckled by cell phone salesmen. We wouldnt have seen pictures in the clouds or oodles of cute puppies lounging outside starbucks or gotten sunkissed shoulders. Today if was definitely a Lifestyle Center kinda day :) sure there was shopping involved, but there was so much more, in fact, it seemed like everyone else was enjoying the lifestyle center as much as we were. Even the friendly faces of the workers there had a glow, unlike disgruntled mall employees who have been cooped up all day and are suffering from carbon dioxide induced delusions and claustrophobia.

They show outdoor movies , have puppy adoptions, even free samples of ice cream. Now that is a lifestyle I can get used to !!!