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There are so many physical places I wish still existed!
When I was a kid, there was a dollar theatre in one of the towns we moved to. I believe it closed down a year or two after we arrived there, but for a little while we could see older movies there for only $1 per person.
I miss record stores, too. They were a great place to browse and find new music. The one I visited was always playing various records as background music, so you could also discover new artists and songs just by asking the employees what was currently playing.
Chain bookstores still exist in my city, but many secondhand, niche, and indie bookstores have long since shut down, especially since 2020. You could find so many unique books in them, and they had a much calmer ambiance than the places that also sold, say, home decor and candles.
Now some clothing stores are sadly disappearing, too. One of the ones I shopped at for many years is trying to get all of their customers to order online, so I’ve switched to other stores that have my size in stock so I can see how clothes fit and feel before buying them. Clothing and shoes are two things I avoid ordering online due to how much variation there can be in size and feel from one brand to the next. There is no consistency there.
When I was a teenager, I used to walk laps in the mall with my friends. From what I’ve read, many of today’s teens don’t do that much anymore because some malls no longer allow unaccompanied minors in them and because parenting standards for when kids should be allowed to go out by themselves have shifted in many families.
Some of the malls in my city are busy, but others are terribly quiet or have even shut down. I wish the culture would shift back to a time when it was okay for teens to hang out at malls when they’re not in school. There’s nothing wrong with online interactions, but I think many people of all ages could do with more in-person socializing as well.
These are a few of the places I miss. How about all of you?
Title: A Hundred Julys
The Ooze was a Christian message board created by Spencer Burke that existed about 20 years ago when the Internet was quite different from how it is today. It was a gathering place for all sorts of people who were trying to come up with better ways to live out their faith. I met some incredible people there, including my spouse!
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