Going to the mall in 1978

And don't forget the famous "mall scene" from Romero's "Dawn of the "dead".........now THAT was a mall trip to remember!

[quote] twinks in arcades

Those are children.

I was 17 in 1978, and basically lived at the local mall. Right down the road was a drive in theater, and I remember seeing Romero's Dawn of the Dead there (many times). It took quite a while for me to feel OK going back to the mall - kept looking over my shoulder, and listening for motorcycles.

I was not born at this time. I wasn’t born until the late 80s.

What’s interesting to see is the blend of the generational styles that someone like myself, segregates by the decade. I automatically identify the 70s with 70s fashion and hair.

But despite it being 1977, there’s still a lot of fashion from the 1940s and 1950s you see in the old people. It’s almost bizarre to me.

But I’ve known that the really old fashion looks was still around until the 80s.

Just like today, you will see old biker ladies still wearing the heavy hairspray bangs and the Farrah Fawcett flip they’ve been doing since they were teenagers in the 70s and 80s.

It’s just fascinating to me because through movies and music videos and magazines and etc, I always feel like “the 70s looked like this”, “the 80s looked like that”.

But if you watch this video you’re still seeing looks from the 1940s just on old people.

I've never even been there and don't know where in NY it is, but I know it's spelled PLATTSBURGH.

Ahh the stench of Hickory Farms…

R4 Old ladies in the 70s were stuck in the late 50s, and so on. I’m not sure why that would be surprising to anyone.

NB In 1980 our “second car” was from 1968…follow the pattern

That hurt my eyes back then and it hurts my eyes now.

I was in HS and went to visit my sister at college there in 1979. I went to the gym and was taking a shower and a very sexy jock guy cruised me. He jerked his dick hard and it was enormous. I had years of high school showers but nobody was flashing their big hard boners so I was surprised how big a cock could be. He invited me to his dorm and we blew each other. Fond memories. The next year I went to Cornell but I went all the way up there to visit my sister again and found that guy and we fucked. First time for me. He was so friendly and warm with me. Plattsburgh is flat, on the immense lake, and gets wind Canada and the Adirondacks. In those olden days, it was artic cold. Absolutely bone chilling cold.

It had a tattered old downtown with a bunch of dive bars. But they were hopping. The Plattsburgh jock boys were so cute and friendly. It was a different vibe than Cornell but the guys were just as hot. Dave Annable went to that school. That's what the guys looked like - cute jock boy next doors, kinda wise-aleks, not rich or brainiacs.

F4 lives in a small world.

TV and movies pick an era like the 70's and everything from the sets to the cloths to the actors are all from that specific era. That's make believe. In the real life it's the same back then as it is now. People in 2024 still sport styles from 2000, and 2010. Everything from cars and hair style to cloths and even electronics. Most of America is not up on every style of the moment. Or even of the year or even the decade.

And the older people get, the longer they hold on to the older style they were comfortable with. "I just replaced my floors with a gray wood color, it's so modern" actually that trend peaked 15 years ago Madge.

[quote]Ahh the stench of Hickory Farms…

And perm salons! That shit stunk up the whole mall.

Looks like heaven OP. Too bad I was born in 79.

When I went to the mall with my friends in the late 80s and 90s, it was full of teenagers. Malls were for teens, for dating, for movies, for eating.

Now, on Saturdays and Sundays they are filled with old people wondering how the hell they got so old.

I can still remember the smell of Hickory Farms vividly.

Loved Pyramid malls. Spencer’s was as close to a porn shop that we had back then.

I have very fond memories of Landover Mall in Landover, Maryland during the 70s.

Look at how thin everybody was. Unlike today, with so many land whales walking around.

The anchor stores were JCPenney, Kmart and Montgomery Ward. Plattsburgh not a fancy town.

No shit—

R11 Yeah I know, that’s why I referred to the biker Farrah Fawcett ladies of today.

I’m clearly much younger than you and I was just pointing out how, not having lived through that time and only seeing movies, it’s strange for me to see the old fashion in this time period.

R17 and yet the people looked just as hideous, oddly.

Personally I believe the advances in skincare and hair care have offset the ugliness of fatties today.

The Romero mall movie was filmed at one of the malls closest to me.

It's the one where I used to skip school, so I could avoid bullies, go off, shoplift and meet older men.

This brings up memories of Dallas’ Valley View and Prestonwood malls.

Both have been leveled.

Also, where are the polyester-clad gay clerks/salespeople?

[quote]It's the one where I used to skip school, so I could avoid bullies, go off, shoplift and meet older men.

You always knew where to find the misdemeanors and the boys.

Seems like a comforting time. If I ever have a house I'm doing it in plaid, shag, avocado and harvest gold.

[quote]R22: The Romero mall movie was filmed at one of the malls closest to me.

Monroeville Mall, Pennsylvania.

Is that the same PA mall used in Stranger Things?

[quote]Yeah I know, that’s why I referred to the biker Farrah Fawcett ladies of today.

They are called Boomers. I see one all the time in my building who arrives in her Porsche. It's like Skelator with a Farrah Fawcett wig. She looks close to 80. She thinks she is styling.

Where are all the obese people?

Hickory Farms Rose.

I like the woman at 4:34 who was obviously a big Bonnie Franklin fan.

I was six in 1978. Though I prefer the vibe of 80s malls much more, I'd still love to go spend some time inside this video.

For R4 , my dad (born in 1924) was one of those "dressing like 1946 in 1986" guys. It's where I get my fondness for wingtip shoes.

R27 Gwinnett Place Mall

Gap 1978 Ad!

I think there was a Gap at Highland Mall in Austin in 1978. I'm not sure.

Yay, r35!

what was the 70s fascination with Brown?

R26 Yes, indeed.

Glad to see the very midcentury arches are still part of the mall - where the video starts used to be a Joseph Horne's location. If I remember right, the other side of the mall was a Gimbels, which also closed.

A lot of the interior has dramatically changed so I can't say I recognize much else from the video as far as inside.

[quote]what was the 70s fascination with Brown?

Earth tones, r37.

R37 what’s your issue?!

[quote]what was the 70s fascination with Brown?

Well it IS an Ivy League university!

Brown and orange were the official colors of the 1970s. .

I was shocked when I saw Fast Times at Ridgemont High because malls where I lived did not hire teenagers. Retail was a grownup job. People could still make a living in retail. My husband’s mother’s cousin worked in the electronics department at Macy’s his whole adult life, bought a smallish house on an acre and a half on Long Island and retired with a pension.

Even the food court didn’t hire all teens because they couldn’t be trusted. There had to be an adult manager on premises.

I was accepted by Brown in the JFK Jr. years—meh

Bob and Emily were always surrounded by orange and brown

They always dressed to match the furniture and wallpaper.

^ my teen years! 😍

I remember going to this mall in the late 1970’s when I lived in Montreal (across the border from Plattsburgh). I don’t remember why I was there but this video is like a bad acid flashback.

My mom had the “frosted” version of the Emily cut. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Look at all the clean hair!

One of my favorite nostalgia videos…Roosevelt Field in 1983. Though it was the 80s Reaganism hadn’t taken full hold yet and kids still talked and dressed like they were in Saturday Night Fever.

One of the biggest fashion changes of the 1980s was Madonna. After she became famous girls started frizzing their bangs and wearing bustiers as school clothes. But Madonna wasn’t famous yet when this was made, so you can still see the fashion effects of Farrrah Fawcett hair and Dorothy Hamill cuts.

I find these teens endearing despite their horrific accents. They were flat out truthful, engaging in conversation with the videographers and each other. They didn’t try to be reality stars, they weren’t glammed up, trying to impress any9me else with wealth and success. They were just kids.

The sign at the end said “computer pictures all month”

What does that mean?

Pictures from a computer. Duh.

Nobody had computers in 1978.

I was ahead of my time in my love for the Cinnabon frozen drinks. I don't remember them being called a "Chillatta," and back then, there was only one flavor (coffee, I think).

Anyway, this Cinnabon frozen drink was the precursor to the Starbucks Frappuccino. It may have been better the Starbucks product.

R54 retail mall stores selling pictures did…duh

Selling what pictures?

OMG the smoking! You could smoke all over the mall back then.

I've seen r51 Roosevelt Field video before. The kids are mostly charmers and they are mostly blue collar kids.

R58- That was true 20 years later- still.

R55 Dunkin Donuts also had a frozen coffee drink before Suxbux.

And Arby's had the Jamocha Shake.

R57 pictures of people. Duh.

I wonder if there was one of those photo development huts in the parking lot. What were those called?

R63 Fotomat

Can someone direct me to Chess King? I have a very fancy event this weekend and need an equally fancy outfit.

Spencer's always had a funky smell. No matter which one you went to.

It’s on the left next to B. Dalton/Pickwick, just past the fountain greenery and to the right of Miller’s Outpost.

Wow!

All the Dorothy Hamill Wedge cuts on the young women.

Salespeople dressed for work.

People interacting with each other, not staring at their phones

All that polyester!

The guy in the puffer jacket and polyester trucker cap

The knee high socks and the track shorts on the young guy at the end!

Miller's Outpost! I haven't thought of that place in years.

All the cool kids did their back-to-school shopping there. We were poor, so the ONE time my Grandma took me there to buy some BTS clothes was pretty much a dream come true (at the time).

However, our Miller's was not located in a mall; it was a fairly large, standalone store in a strip mall. Back then they called those "plazas."

Lord and Taylor was the "classy" mall store, more high end than Macy's or Penney's.

To this day I can still recall the smell of cigarette smoke in the food court vividly.

A Touch Of Class, anyone?

I would spend my allowance at Sam Goody.

1975–8th grade: Miller’s Outpost

A couple of those film makers had nice tight jeans and one had a nice package.

I wonder which one was the gayling.

Going to the mall arcade, going to line my quarter up along the top of the Asteroids machine behind all the other quarters and get in line, sippin' on my Orange Julius as I watch the big kids play Asteroids. Oh yeah

^^The Air Hockey machine was quite popular too. It would take forever to get your turn using the ol' quarter on the table method.

We would go to IMagnin in Oakland CA. they had those little tubes that you would put a paper with a message in a little cylinder in and it would zip around the building in a tube. Another cashier would retrieve the paper at the other end . It was an early form of internet. You think I’m joking but it really existed.

They had those in bank drive-thrus as well. The pneumatic tubes thing.

1. That wasn’t a mall R78.

2. Don’t type stupid R78—hundreds of stores has a similar set up, not to mention thousands of bank branches.

R80. Why are you suck a cunt?

Is the Midol wearing off?

You know English! No?

For people living in the suburbs and urban areas, the mall was the destiny of choice to shop and hang-out. If you lived in a big city, there were a big variety of stores and also big department stores so that you didn't feel the need to go out of your way to go to a mall.

^ DL rocket scientist

I remember shopping at a men's store called Stylegate.

It was a bit more upscale.

I didn't buy much, but the hot young Tony Goldwyn lookalike showed me his truly massive penis in the dressing room so, bonus!

R84 And don't you forget it.

These people would go home at night and watch Alice or One Day At A Time or The Jeffersons.

I remember being enamored with Daffy Dan's. I used to stand by the counter and watch the sales stoner hot press the decals, dreaming of owning a shirt of my own some day. When I finally got one as a gift, the decal peeled off within a few months.

Who else in the Northeast remembers Caldor? It was KMart's even trashier cousin.

I remember Caldor, R89, but to me it seemed a step above Kmart, which I considered bottom of the barrel.

R89 and R90- Caldor was at the same level as Kmart. There was a Caldor in White Plains , NY . It closed and was replaced by a Kmart around 2001. I shopped at both stores. Kmart is now out of business . It's now a BJ'S Wholesale club.

Is Caldor like a Venture?

Kmart was always the bottom of the barrel.

Caldor and Venture were a step above. Maybe a half-step, but still higher.

r83 welcome to DL, Captain Obvious.

Back in the 1970s there was still a lot of stuff made in America. Kmart comes from Kresge, a dimestore from the turn of the century. Kmart was the same concept as Walmart and opening the same year that Walmart first opened. Kmart was kind of a complete department store, except real furniture. If you were looking for bedrock American made brands it didn't much matter which store carried them. Caldor or Kmart or Walmart etc, they were all about the same. Kmart was good for basic sporting goods, tools, hunting and fishing, very basic housewares, school supplies, etc.

Caldor was a thousand times better than KMart.

Source- my Caldor turned into a KMart

Caldor’s employees worked there for years. The same lady worked in the camera department for 10 years. The kid in Seasonal had to cover Small Appliances as well one day, and profusely apologized for not being familiar with the stock (irons, toasters, crockpots, toaster ovens, Hot Shot dispensers). He agreed with me that ironing boards should be in the same aisle as irons.

Everybody spoke English.

I went in when it became KMart and it was deader than a doornail. I tried to speak to a worker. Mostly they skittered away when they realized I wanted to ask a question. I finally cornered a woman and she didn’t speak English. I went to the cash register and the clerk didn’t speak English.,No wonder it was dead.

It seems quaint now - a store that has regularly scheduled, fulltime employees who like their job and interact with customers.

Caldeo did not “become” Kmart. Kmart merely acquired empty storefronts vacated by Caldor. and the FFE. The retail operations had no connection.

R96- I still have a cookbook my mother purchased at Caldor - it must have been in the late 1970's.

The McCall's Cookbook- there are some fabulous recipes in there. The first ten or so pages has color photos of how to recipes including a triple layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and whipped cream between the layers called Perfect Chocolate Cake.

How do I know it was bought at Caldors ? The book cover still had the price tag with Caldor on the label.

R73- I remember going to Sam Goody at the Galleria Mall in White Plains NY around 1981 and seeing 8 track tapes which were by then well on their way out.

Walmart really only expanded beyond the south successfully once Kmart, Sears and other regional brands started to falter. In my area we had many - Zayre, Hills, Murphy's which was bought by Ames.....and they all faltered in the early 90s. Later in the 90s we started to see Walmart and Target move into the area, and they've been the primary two stores in that category since.

Just as Sears fell and Kohl's sort of took its place in many areas, with JCP hanging on by a fine thread.

Walmart didn't come to CT/MA until the late 90s, IIRC.

R96 and was that experience in the 1970s?

I grew up in California so we didn't have a lot of those regional discounters -- just KMart and White Front where I was. But I moved east in 1978 where they had Caldor, Korvette's, Ames, Bradlee's, Zayre, etc. It was a whole new world! I agree with the other posters that Caldor was a bit above Kmart's level, as were the others mention (although probably not Zayre.)

Bradlee's was kind of the "high class" K Mart. It was also in CT/MA.

[quote]Now, on Saturdays and Sundays they are filled with old people wondering how the hell they got so old.

Where I live the malls are filled on the weekends with huge multigenerational families of Indian, Hispanic and Filipino extraction.

Same r105.

As Chris Rock once said "every town has the same two malls. The one white people go to, and the one white people USED to go to.

Chris Rock - Black Mall

[Quote] Caldeo did not “become” Kmart. Kmart merely acquired empty storefronts vacated by Caldor. and the FFE

Caldeo didn’t, but Caldor did.

The store was Caldor. It closed. A week later it was KMart. The store that was a Caldor [italic] became [/italic] a Kmart.

No. The building was repurposed for use as a Kmart..

r4, I don't see much of 40s or 50s fashion in OP's clip, even among the older people. Some of those women have bouffant hairdos, and those had gone out of fashion back in the 60s (although older women loved them); but 40s and 50s fashion is pretty different from what you see on the older people in that clip.

It's just that back then older people dressed markedly differently than younger people did. There's still some differentiation today, but not always as much.

Calador was liquidated. It wasn’t sold—it didn’t get a new name. It ceased to exist. Full stop.

Caldor

The

Caldor….

…that’s “Caldor”…..

Became

A

Kmart.

It

Was

Caldor…

that’s “Caldor”…

And

It

Became

Kmart

Bradlee's and Zayre's = Jews

I loved that Caledorian store!

Our Bradlees became Bonwit Teller but our Dillard's became Dollar Tree.