That Thing You Miss

[Warmsignal]

Honestly the thing I miss the most is the age before smart phones. Because it's made such a difference in the way people conduct their entire lives now. Everything now revolves around, or goes through a smart phone. Before, it didn't. People nowadays (myself included in this) prefer to divide up a good portion of their experience of life through the use of a phone. You see this when people would rather take a picture or video to post, than simply live in the moment. Or they'd rather text someone else, instead of talking to the person they're eating lunch with. Or Googling a quick answer, rather than actually learn by experience or study. Or fill every slightly dull moment with another check-up on social media. I remember what it was like before all of that. It's hard to explain, but I prefer it the way it was.

I miss a lot of old retail establishments that have long since gone away. I miss the convenience of having a lot of places to physically browse for a variety of goods that you just can't even find anymore in a lot of small towns. I miss record stores, rental stores, department stores, toy stores, electronics stores.

I miss the era when pizza wasn't a fast-food, but a special occasion type of eatery. The cost was about $25 - $30 for a decent sized one, and it was damn delicious. Nowadays, it's an inexpensive and bland fast-food item for the most part. Hardly enjoyable.

I also just miss just being young, naive, and optimistic.

[hoshichiri]

I miss 'hype', for lack of a better term. I am the sort who, when I get excited for something, I get EXCITED- obsessing over details, losing sleep, ranting on end about the thing, etc. In recent years though, I've largely lost the ability to be that kind of excited. Things are familiar now- even things that are new come across as amalgamations of previous experience, worthy of bemusement but not genuine hype.


I'm not particularly bothered- where hype once was, nostalgia has taken over. Old favorites can bring a surprising amount of joy. Plus, I do still get excited- just not in the same way. Every once in awhile though, I'd really like to just have that unbridled feeling of enthusiasm again.


That, and Arby's Loaded Potato Bites. It's been years and I still have cravings...

[bikingjahuty]

I'd also like to add shopping malls. And no I don't mean the modern "lifestyle" centers that seem to rise from the ashes of former demolished malls, I mean actual shopping malls with food courts, anchor stores, movie theaters, arcades, toy stores,  and all the other amazing things that used to make up malls from when I was a kid and young adolescent. There are a couple of malls in my area still, but sadly many of them have lost their spirit and become very upscale or they are a combination of mall and community center with stores being used for weird things like dentists offices, army recruiters, and adult learning centers. In fact, my favorite malls now are the dead malls or near dead malls that still have most of their aesthetic from the time when they were booming back in the 90s and 80s. I used to spend hours at a few local malls back in the day, and now I can barely spend more than half an hour before getting bored out of my mind from the lack of anything appealing or pleasing about the experience of being there.

[kamikazekeeg]

I'd also like to add shopping malls. And no I don't mean the modern "lifestyle" centers that seem to rise from the ashes of former demolished malls, I mean actual shopping malls with food courts, anchor stores, movie theaters, arcades, toy stores,  and all the other amazing things that used to make up malls from when I was a kid and young adolescent. There are a couple of malls in my area still, but sadly many of them have lost their spirit and become very upscale or they are a combination of mall and community center with stores being used for weird things like dentists offices, army recruiters, and adult learning centers. In fact, my favorite malls now are the dead malls or near dead malls that still have most of their aesthetic from the time when they were booming back in the 90s and 80s. I used to spend hours at a few local malls back in the day, and now I can barely spend more than half an hour before getting bored out of my mind from the lack of anything appealing or pleasing about the experience of being there.

This was the Diamond Mall back in Anchorage I would travel to as a teen.  It had the usual music and game stores, but there was an ice rink, awesome arcade, it had a full movie theater, there was a great comic book shop, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting as I haven't been there in well over a decade lol

[oldgamerz]

I'd also like to add shopping malls. And no I don't mean the modern "lifestyle" centers that seem to rise from the ashes of former demolished malls, I mean actual shopping malls with food courts, anchor stores, movie theaters, arcades, toy stores,  and all the other amazing things that used to make up malls from when I was a kid and young adolescent. There are a couple of malls in my area still, but sadly many of them have lost their spirit and become very upscale or they are a combination of mall and community center with stores being used for weird things like dentists offices, army recruiters, and adult learning centers. In fact, my favorite malls now are the dead malls or near dead malls that still have most of their aesthetic from the time when they were booming back in the 90s and 80s. I used to spend hours at a few local malls back in the day, and now I can barely spend more than half an hour before getting bored out of my mind from the lack of anything appealing or pleasing about the experience of being there.

This was the Diamond Mall back in Anchorage I would travel to as a teen.  It had the usual music and game stores, but there was an ice rink, awesome arcade, it had a full movie theater, there was a great comic book shop, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting as I haven't been there in well over a decade lol

There is a few different major malls located by me but I know for a fact that the mega mall down the street has way too many clothing and shoe outlets, it does have a baby and retro video game store next door to the primary mall though but the mall is mostly only a variety of clothing and shoes

[Warmsignal]

Malls will never again be what they once were. The ever evolving cycle of consumerism will see to that. Pack peddlers were killed of by the mail-order business, the mail-order business was killed off by the downtown business district, shopping malls killed the downtown business district, the big box store effect killed shopping malls, and now the online retailer is in the process of killing the big box store.