The playground of my youth

As I wrote this post in my,heas I digressed a few times.  Yeah, it'll happen when I take pen to paper as well.  Well, fingers to keyboard anyways.

I've mentioned my hometown before, but I think I've only referred to it as T town.  People from Ohio may know where that is, but for those that don't, it's good old Toledo Ohio.

Yep, remembed the good old John Denver song It's Saturday night in Toledo Ohio? yeah, it's pretty spot on, especially as the years passed and the auto industry killed us.

John Denver was the first concert I went to. I guess I was like 7 or so, and apparently fell asleep.  Who falls asleep at a concert? I mean, I know it was John Denver and all, but if he,had,played Grandmas feather bed it SO would have woken,me up, I'm sure of it.  (go ahead, youtube the song, it rocked to my little ears)

Anyways.

When I was growing up we had 4 large indoor malls. And restaurants on every corner.  Literally.  They used to say if a restaurant could make it in Toledo it could make it anywhere.  We apparently didn't like to cook for ourselves.

So many years ago the first mall started to die.  I remember going there the year I got married because one of the last few stores open was a Fredericks of Hollywood.  So that was 12 years ago.  Not long after that it closed and became a parking lot for Jeep i believe.  That wasn't the mall I spent much time at.

Then Southwyck Mall closed.  That was a mall I frequented when I was a little older, late teens to early 20's.  It was crazy and a little sad.  They,ended up tearing it down because no one would buy it, and it was covered in asbestos.

The third mall was Woodville mall. That was my stomping grounds.  I spent quite some time there dating back to my first beauty pageant at 3ish years old. 

This mall hung on LONG after it should have closed.  They were down to just a handful of stores and an indoor skate park.  Part of the reason it hung on was because of the Andersons, go ahead, look it up.  It's an amazing store. It's got everything from groceries to toilets to flooring and everything in between. Great wine selection and knowledgeable staff. 

So apparently they closed that location.  And the mall stopped paying their gas bill because thet couldn't afford it.  So the tenants were using space heaters.  There were holes in the roof they couldn't afford to fix.   Asbestoes everywhere.

So they condemed the place.

Shut it down.

And last month?

They tore it down.

I grew up there.  K literally lived a block away, he REALLY grew up there.

It's so sad to see an important piece of your childhood gone.  I never thought a mall of all things would fit that bill (I actually didn't love shopping), but it did.

And it's sad.

K just told me this tonight.  And it oddly affected me enough that I sat here, with my Kracken and caffeine free diet, and typed this on my cell.

My birthday is in 2 weeks.  I'm only going to be 34, but things like this make me feel suddenly old.  It's saying goodbye to a large part of my childhood.

And yes, that's very sad.