So yesterday they started tearing down the Bannister Mall. At first it didn't affect me but the more I thought about it the more I spiraled down into a nostalgic state of melancholy. And when my friend in New York, who was often my partner in crime, e-mailed me today because he'd heard the news, I decided it was okay to mourn the edifice. I was 12 when that mall opened, just old enough to spend ALL of my teenage years bumming rides out to the mall. All the records I bought, all the movies I saw, all the Original Pizza and Pasta that I ate, it all came back to me in a rush of time and space. I saw Tron at that theater and was completely amazed by it. My friend Mike (the one in NY) and I spent hours at Zeezo's Magic Castle looking at cool latex masks and wigs and theatrical makeup and magic tricks. There was also the time that we got caught in a wicked thunderstorm just as we left. It was raining so hard you could barely see and his windshield wipers didn't work. Rachel and I saw the Rolling Stones movie "Let's Spend the Night Together." She was such a Rolling Stones freak. There was the marathon Christmas shopping session with my sister Cathy. She had waited until the last minute and dragged me out there to help her. We walked up and down that crowded mall a dozen times and made many trips out to her car to stow loads of gifts. I have never been so exhausted in my life to this day. That was the year she got me both Boston albums. When I got my driver's license it was the first place I drove myself to and the sense of freedom was overwhelming. Soon after I got my license the mall began to fall into decline. A mugging or two in the parking lot and the suburbanites began to find someplace else to shop. In it's heyday it was one of the largest malls in the midwest. Soon it will be gone and only the memories will remain. Tonight I will go find I quiet place to watch the sunset and mourn the passing of my youth. Tomorrow life will go on.
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