My wife does not remember Bennett Bro’s

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I hadn't thought about this in over 35-40 years. I don't think that I could afford the stuff my mom liked. So I ended up at the neighborhood Sears buying her cheap crap like Jean N'ate (?) that I saw on tv.

The newer version of the stuff she liked just cost me $150 three weeks ago.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Well, she’s from Chebanse. That’s like fucking Indiana.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Jean N’ate...thanks for that memory, you old bastard.

I bought my dad a hair dryer in 77. He was pretty much bald by then. I still have that hair dryer.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

I think that I was debating between a blender, a mixer or an electric knife for my mom around then. Thankfully, she's never brought it back up.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

My wife laughed.

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She married you. She’s got to have a sense of humor.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Stratford was the mall my mom would drag us too or as a teen I would go to movies at with people from Bartlett or St. Charles. As a kid my mom mostly avoided woodfield but would drag us to Oak brook if she needed to go to some nicer stores. But this was all 80’s to early 90s.

Would have loved to have had that kind of money.

Ford City for me....though I didn't really go there after eighth grade. There were two record stores there and Waldenbooks, but there were also record stores on 87th and 79th, and my sister took me to Hyde Park for books. The Sound Warehouse on 87th Street sold good records for $5.99-$7.99.

I think the Sound Warehouse moved to the Scottsdale Shopping Plaza on 79th. I can't believe they moved there. I had a roommate who died and I wanted to remember him by his favorite album (Dirt by Alice in Chains), so I walked to Scottsdale and bought the record. (I already had the CD.) Had a good conversation with the stoner working there. Next time I came home from school, it was closed.

Times of change are fucking depressing.

Relative to Lakehurst, Hawthorne was fancy. C'mon, they had Marshall Fields.

This was pre Northbrook Court...with their Lord And Taylor.

I didn't even know Woodfield existed.

My mom loved Old Orchard. I never understood the appeal. Seemed like everytime we went there it was midwinter.

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White Oaks in Springfield. Spent many nights in the arcade (Aladdin’s Castle) and the Cookie Factory. Took my son to the latter a year ago, and the food is trash now.

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-- source

Damn....I thought this was the set-up for the great Italian joke. There was some mall that was full of those people, and I famously modified the joke about time in Italy. I just can't remember the mall.

Someone when I was on Facebook ten years ago had a mall conversation going, and I put Chris Rock's quote up, but they made me take it down. Pansies.

I believe the Sound Warehouse turned into Blockbuster Music for a couple of years until that closed down too.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

I think you are right...then it became that skanky liquor store...

I've had the displeasure of working at Gurnee Mills (right after it opened), Lakehurst (2 different spells at Camelot Music) and Hawthorn.
Probably spent most of my actual shopping time at Gurnee Mills or Northbrook Court.
There is a whole "Dead Malls" nostalgia subculture out there...
It's pretty fun to waste a couple hours watching these types of videos.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dead+malls

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

We used to do a Mall Report in the high school sociology classes I taught. It was a great way to talk about class and segregation and other stuff. (Might not work as well today.)

Anyway, the mall that most students loved to hate was Lincoln Mall in the south suburbs. I think it's closed now.

My youth says fuck off to you and your students.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

I hope we don't lose malls completely. Oak Brook seems to be doing a good job of keeping themselves together. I worry about Yorktown and I hope JCP doesn't go down altogether.

They won't if the towns see value in them. The HIP in Norridge is still thriving because the town incentivizes businesses going in there. They have I think 3 tenants, including Hobby Lobby and a gym, going into their old Carson's. The opposite would be Bloomingdale, which offered tax incentives to businesses opening on Army Trail while Stratford Square was flailing. I have to imagine Oak Brook sees the value of the mall, it's still kicking even with all the retail that sprung up around it.

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

They have old staples but they have been good about bringing in new stuff like Amazon 4-star or Ballard designs. Their restaurants are solid. They're putting in some different stuff like a gym. It's interesting. I still like Yorktown though.

Lakehurst as a kid, but I think we stopped going there around 1985 or so. I do remember Alladin's Castle and having our pictures taken at JC Penny or something. We went to Woodfield once as a family.

We then graduated to the "fancy" mall at Hawthorn ...which I still go to from time to time.

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@audioidkid

For some reason I was thinking Scottsdale was 87th and Cicero. Bogan on 79th had a Kroozin Music across from it near a Mr. Sub.

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Elections have consequences.

What about The Male Ego and Jan's Deli? Do they still exist?

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Back in the 70s we used to schlep from Algonquin to Old Orchard a fair bit. My grandma and mother loved the restaurant in Marshall Fields -- it was fairly good as I recall. Marshall Fields State Street back in the 70s was a thing you had to see to believe, they had eveything from fishing gear, rare coins, chocolate factory on the top floors where you could watch them make Frangos. The toy section was amazing...model railroad, bikes, the whole nine yards. Our entire house was furnished from oddities found at their sub-basement annual clearance.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

yorktown and the movie theater next to it, both still there

Yeah, Marshall Fields was like a city unto itself. You could spend an entire day there and not see the whole thing. (Carson's was similar but not quite at that level...they had an entire section/dept devoted to stamp collecting). Fields back in the day was what Bergdorf Goodman in New York still is today.

Speaking of Marshall Fields, Macy's just announced more closures:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/20 ... 829013001/

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I forgot about Kroozin Music--my brothers and sisters always went there. They had a Barnaby's pizza over that way, too. My brother used to take us in his refurbished 70s van, complete with carpeted walls. It was pretty damn sweet.

Correct on the Barnabys but that close early 80s at best and became a couple of bars.

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Elections have consequences.

Give the lady what she wants! Marshall Field's was a big deal for Chicagoans of the previous generation to mine. I wasn't really upset when Macy's bought it, but some of those older people flipped their lids. I remember my mom saying it was already dead at the time Macy's took over, the service had declined and they eliminated the green bags.

One year around Christmas I took my mother to help me buy a watch for a girlfriend. I was letting my mom run the show because I figured she would know better what a girl would like. We weren't getting what my mom thought was the proper standard of service for Field's. I'll never forget this because my mom used a phrase I have never heard before or since. She said to the saleswoman, "You're charging grand whore prices and the service here isn't very good. What happened to Marshall Field's?"

One of my friends had an older sister who went to work at Field's and she became the protege of some big shot and eventually she had a big hand in putting together the Christmas windows at the downtown store.

Another friend of mine's mother-in-law was a Jewish girl from England. She came to Chicago as a teenager prior to WWII and got a job at Field's downtown. She was sixteen and they put her in high end jewelry because they thought her English accent was classy.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Hey--I'm just the messenger.

One of the students is now a relatively well-known journalist. He entitled his paper, "Stinkin' Lincoln."