1988.xx.xx Sears Christmas Catalog P531

1988.xx.xx Sears Christmas Catalog P531, originally uploaded by Wishbook.

{This is from one of my Flickr friends.}

My mom bought those benders curlers from this exact catalog. They never worked too well, and we probably trashed them when we moved to Wakefield in 2000.

I have the Conair Geometricks (the four in one thing down at the bottom). I bought that in almost mint condition at a CHKD thrift store in Smithfield in 2004. It’s in storage now 😦

Armory Drive Cinemas (Closed, January 2008)

{Photo I took in May of 2007. When I added this photo to Flickr back then, I put a note on the “Delta Farce” marquee, and in the note I said, “We can imagine what movie most of Franklin will be seeing.”}

I read in the paper a couple of days ago that this place closed unexpectedly. I’m not surprised. I went there to see The Simpsons Movie in July, and the place was falling apart, and the movie was out of focus for 20 minutes.

Franklin’s only movie cinema closes

By Paul McFarlane/Editor/paul.mcfarlane@tidewaternews.com
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:46 AM EST

FRANKLIN-Armory Drive Cinemas, the last existing movie house in the Franklin/Southampton area, has closed its doors.

The final weekend of showings was Jan. 12-13. The last movies playing were “I am Legend,” “National Treasure” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”

A greeting left on the business’ answering machine states: “We would to thank you for supporting our Armory Drive Cinemas during the last few years. We are now closed. Thank you for your efforts and time that you spent. And I hope you enjoyed your movies.”

See Wednesday’s print edition of The Tidewater News for more details.

Bath & Body Works, Williamsburg VA

This is the one at Newtown Open Air Shopping area…which I apparently haven’t brought up yet here. I thought I did. I have photos I took back in November:

“Closing of A&N apparel chain likened to ‘a death in the family'”

(Daily Press photo by Joe Fudge)

Closing of A&N apparel chain likened to ‘a death in the family’

Daily Press article that ran Saturday. I have the article scanned, I just couldn’t upload it to photobucket the other day, so expect an edit on this entry in the next couple of days.

But enjoy the video on the link while it is still up. The dude showing off the sweatpants he bought (around the 53 second mark) is wearing a Sanford & Son T-shirt which makes him my best friend forever. This video was filmed at the Newmarket South Shopping Center location, which is down the street from Daily Press’ headquarters. We visited this store way too much growing up. My best memory of the store was when I was 12 (1996), mom and I were looking at shoes in there (I had a massive shoe collection back then), and I saw these ancient platform Converse Sneakers. I think they were red velvet. These had to be three, four years old — and they were still on the shelf. They were barely marked down, I wouldn’t even call it clearance. We asked if there was a pair in my size (10), but there wasn’t.

So, yeah there’s my A&N story.

//edit #1//

Virginia Pilot article.

Birth, death and shopping

Article on the economist that mentions us at deadmalls.com.

A Visit to Southpark Mall (December, 2007)

(The last time I visited Southpark was in April of 2005)

I got to visit Southpark (in Colonial Heights, VA) a few days before Christmas. I was excited about going back to Southpark because as you can see by the above link its been a while. When I was going to a class trip to Richmond earlier this year, we passed by Southpark and I thought they were getting a renovation, because they were adding on a movie theater. Apparently I was wrong. It still looks like 1989.

I see plastic tarp rolled up over the entrances of all the stores, maybe renovation is about to start during the holidays.

Some iPhone photos:

It was almost dark by the time we got there.

I remember in the late 90’s Dippin Dots booths were in almost every mall. Since Southpark doesn’t have a food court (yet) they just have vending machines and a pretzel shop.

This was my iPhone wallpaper up until a couple of days after Christmas.

We saw all these benches in front of Macys. So we sat down, and people were sitting there waiting for this animotronic bear symphony. The show starts at the top of every hour. People started to gather around, the the composer kept on leading up to the grand performance, introducing the bears and such. Finally, five o clock rolled around and the show started. They sang Rudolph …. and that was it. The lady in front of me even said, “that was IT?!?!”

Those bears sorta remind me of that cartoon The Critic, you know that one time Duke Phillips had the drunk southern animotronic bears in his office? I think they were called quite simply, “the bears that sing for Duke.”

Ah, thanks Google:

All the anchor entrances of this mall are this design. Very late 80’s.

This is the best photo I could get of the Bath & Body works there. You don’t see very many of them in this motif anymore. I miss that.

Some Bags

I found some old bags in with our Christmas decorations last month:

From the 2.5 seconds (ok, more like a year and a half) we had a Hills in Hampton. Bag is either from 1995 or 1996.

Stuarts died in the late 90’s I think. My mom and I spent way.way.way. too much money at Stuart’s Plus in the 90’s on clothes for me. We went to both the Newmarket Fair and Coliseum Mall locations until they closed in about 1997.

I guess Marianne and Jean Nicole were what Stuarts was in other states?

I remember these from the 90’s. It seemed like every store had blue bags back then, something to do with recycling.

I found one of these in a rickety barn in our yard the other day, next to a Pepsi can from the 90’s.

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AT&T iPhone bag. November, 2007.

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Bath & Body Works Christmas 2007 bag. I found a Bath & Body Works bag from 2000 in a box of things the other day.

Some newer bags: