Yeap. They turned it into a post office site if I recall. You’d buy shit then go pick it up by the conveyer belt.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

As an aside, I saw Tom Boerwinkle at that mall buffet. Holy shit tall, seven feet. Looks like he died. Hope he enjoy his meal.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

As an aside, I saw Tom Boerwinkle at that mall buffet. Holy shit tall, seven feet. Looks like he died. Hope he enjoy his meal.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

My first mall was Deerbrook Mall. Used to live across the street. My most influential memory from there was when I was 5 years old a bad kid in the neighborhood convinced me to walk to Turn-Style in Deerbrook Mall for the purpose of shoplifting Spider-Man stickers. We crossed Lake Cook and Waukegan road as the crow flies, diagnally across the the middle of the intersection from the gas station kiddy corner to the mall. Pretty insane manuever for a couple 5 year olds. Of course, my shoe fell off halfway across and i started crying, but my friend went back and got it for me. We got to Turnstyle and somehow successfully stole a bunch of sticker packets. Walked outside and his mom was waiting for us in her car...apparently my friend had threatened to do this many times so she knew where to find him. She brought us home and my mom greeted us at the foot of the driveway where she proceeded to drag me into the house by my hair, no joke.

Deerbrook was great. Had a pet store and they always let you grab any puppy you wanted and take him into the play room and play.

Saw many a movie there. One time freshman year of high school we didn't have enough for a movie so we fished $2.00 in quarters out of the wishing well located in the middle of the mall.



My next mall was Northbrook Court. Highlight has to be the time we threw water balloons at Santa from the balcony. Got chased out by security. Ran into a Northbrook cop at the entrance. Securty told him what we did and he just laughed and drove off. Different times.

My mom was there when they were filming the slurpie scene from Weird Science.

Me and a buddy used to go there and yell "mom" very loud from the balcony just to see how many ladies would turn and look.

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Rockford speedway was out in the country until the commerce center of loves park surrounded it. Now everyone is mad a race track is in the middle of the city.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Does anyone remember a store called F&M? I think it was the last of those shabby Venture-type stores before Target came in and bumped up the whole discount-store experience, except Target had already entered the market by then, so F&M came and went pretty quickly. I have very faint memories of getting school supplies there once, and also that my uncle would go there because it was the only place that reliably stocked all the Canfield sodas he liked. I think it was ever-so-briefly in the strip mall at Thomas and Rand, quite possibly in the erstwhile Handy Andy, which has since become, well, a Target.

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Yes! Used to go to the arcade there. I believe their was a gym inside that mall too. In T&Cs dying years Old Country Buffet was the quasi anchor of the mall

Whoever owned T&C did a nice job of salvaging the real estate by re-developing with big box retailers. Compare that commercial space with the strip mall between Palatine & Rand. The old Cub Food building seems to have stabilized with a tile store. But now with the Laser Quest closed the rest of the strip mall is a vacant ghost town.

Another strip mall that has been a vacant mess is the one just west of 53 pinned between Rand and Dundee. Even though Wal-Mart brings in a ton of traffic into the strip mall the east side of the strip mall is empty. It's amazing that the plaza used to have a Whole Foods.

Nominally my mall was Old Orchard, bit I rarely went there with friends. Kroch's was my usual reward for being dragged along while my mom shopped, and I could browse in the Field's toy department but rarely bought anything.

Harlem and Irving was a frequent stop once I had a driver's license, both with friends and with cousins. But really, I hung out more in the Loop. I worked all summer for my dad from the time I finished 5th grade until I started graduate school, but in the late 70s he didn't flinch if 14-year old me wanted to walk over to Rolling Stones or to the Field's flagship around 3pm for a few minutes. He'd give me $1500 in 20s and send me to the bank to make a deposit, who was going to mug a 14 year old? Hell, I didn't even have a wallet.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

I sure do recall old Town and Country. We live less than a mile from there and moved in 31 years ago. That mall has sure changed a lot over the years but still seems to be mostly hanging tough.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Somehow I got on the topic of both of those Rand Road strip malls in a Pete Buttigieg thread:


Turn them both into coronavirus field hospitals/mass graves.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

On the north edge of Yorktown, they've built two apartment buildings in unused parking lot space. One of the buildings is designated as senior housing, and I wonder if it is subsidized. Looks like they may do something similar with the land where the mini strip mall that used to have Carson's furniture department and Lands End and Frankie's Deli.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal