This is a picture of U.S. artillery units Shaggy One and Shaggy Dos leading our historic charge in the epic and one-sided battle of Mission Mall. Not a battle you will read about in the history books, but historic nonetheless.
Okay, no one is going to be fooled by this image pairing. Dos and I did not lead any such charge. Not that we haven't commandeered high-range cannons through the suburbs on multiple occasions in the past, it's just that publicly posting pictures of this kind of thing can get you in serious trouble.
This second photo is part of a set we took a few year ago while driving by the half-destroyed Mission Mall, which nothing is left of now but a giant expanse of dirt and chain-link fences. Last I heard the planned development had fallen through and there was talk of building some kind of giant aquarium. It's funny to look at the place now and remember all the purposes that mall served for us while it was still intact. My brothers and I had art displayed in the district art fair. We bought our school clothes there each year. I got my first phone at a Mission Mall kiosk, my first CD (Van Halen) at the Musicland, bought dress shoes for my grandfather's funeral at the Dilliards and had my first school dance dinner at Coyote Grill.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't shaking the fence and crying when they started tearing the place down. But it is strange how even the most generic of shopping centers can wind up playing a role in your life. Lame as the mall might have been, it was a hell of a lot more interesting than the huge expanse of dirt and gravel they replaced it with. Hopefully it will work out well for the fish.
6 comments:
I live practically across the street from the old mall. I'm rootin' for a park, but that is probably just too easy...
I feel the same way about Bannister, which sadly will probably be in the same state for a long time.
thanks to this blog post and picture (despite the pseudonym and my looking the other way), i was apprehended at school today and my backpack was searched for nuclear artillery. my car was also searched for wmd's, but they found only a few sharp #2 pencils. fortunately, they underestimated the power of my printed word, and did not confiscate my writing utensils.
That ain't no pseudonymn, dear brother. Mother actually named you Shaggy Dos. If you don't believe me check your birth certificate. I think it's in the shoebox beside the radiator.
"Don't get me wrong, I wasn't shaking the fence and crying when they started tearing the place down."
Yeah right. I know you were out there like that lady from the Terminator, shaking the fence and screaming "NO! NO! NO!"
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