Christmas Shopping 1984
- Thread starter Malo83
- Start date
Hardly seems like enjoying. I dreaded going to malls in 1980s for school shopping. We did have a ton locally with factory outlets in our resort/ski town I grew up in.
Better times for sure.
AutoMechanic
Site Donor 2026
Such a different time. Nobody blocking the way looking at their phones and probably most transactions were cash. Went to the mall today and Walmart both were mad houses and people blocking aisles looking at their phones and probably 99% of them card transactions. I would have loved to be around at that time.
JTK
$100 Site Donor 2025
Those were the days. There was no looking it up online. You had to go the mall, department store or mom/pop store to look around.
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The 1970's and 80's were fun times for me. People (girls) would actually give you eye contact or a smile....instead of head down, staring at a phone. I Kinda feel sorry for young people today because they don't know what they are missing by focusing on the gizmos so much.
We used to plan a date night (1976 - 1985) to the mall with dinner at a restaurant in the mall, shop some, then to the movie theater at the mall. Heck I worked at the JC Penny Automotive Center at the mall while in tech school. Folks would drop their car at the shop and walk across the parking lot to the mall. Convenient and safe. That mall shuttered its doors in the mid-nineties due to the influx of thugs and the theft and violence that soon followed. The City leaders decided that it should be “fair” and the bus route from the ghetto across town to the mall would be a free ride. It’s a shame. Was a nice place before that started. Even had an ice skating rink on the lower level opened all the time.
This is what going to the mall looks like right now
I haven't been to the mall in years zero interest but worked at a couple in my younger years fun times especially the girls actually met my wife there
Like @AutoMechanic wish I was alive back then to experience it.
Feels like I missed out on the good times not being born till 1995.
Feels like I missed out on the good times not being born till 1995.
You didn’t miss much. Everyone views history much more favorably than it actually was.
1984, when I was 8 years old, I pestered my parents to let me see Gremlins. My HR darling closely resembles Mrs Deagle from Gremlins, only Old Stubblehin is meaner. Mrs Deagle was the dog-torturing old bag who got unceremoniously spaceXed through a dormer window by her chairlift. There were no Gremlin toys that year but I was given the soundtrack on LP. Jerry Goldsmith, RIP.
Forward to 1:45 if you don't want to watch the whole clip.
Forward to 1:45 if you don't want to watch the whole clip.
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Good times 7.3 unemployment , interest rates were coming down from 1981 when a 30 year
home loan was 18%, 1984 8%. Cars had so much pollution controls on them. Air pumps and lots of vacuum tubing. Drugs - crack epidemic and cocaine. Crack made from cocaine to smoke.
But it was.
Which mall? I was two but yeah seemed like slower times.
The malls around here are pretty much gone.
When malls were bustling places fully leased and full of people they were fun.
Back in the late eighties, wife and I would get a babysitter for our two then young sons and go Christmas shopping for things for them and then go and have a nice dinner at a good local place.
It was a different world then and I can't say that things are better now.
When malls were bustling places fully leased and full of people they were fun.
Back in the late eighties, wife and I would get a babysitter for our two then young sons and go Christmas shopping for things for them and then go and have a nice dinner at a good local place.
It was a different world then and I can't say that things are better now.
You are right! Hadn't thought about it in ages; Child World, K B Toys, Toys R Us and my favorite Hobbytown, all in just one mall. Back in the 70's. malls were fun as a youngster, toys, then really fun a bit older when you could get dropped off or take the bus alone. Good memories. Soon thereafter they lost their appeal for many reasons.
