Anyone here have any interests that others may find odd?
I've noticed a growing interest in dead and dying malls and other commercial establishments over the past few years. As of now, the interest is limited to surfing blogs and sites such as deadmalls.com and labelscar.com, but I do sometimes look at places and wonder what might have been there 20 or more years ago; and have occasionally purposely driven by establishments long abandoned.
Perhaps this fascination is due to the rapid change in American retail establishments. When I was growing up downtown stores were still popular shopping destinations, Wal-Mart was just a small store with many competitors (I cannot honestly say I remember a Wal-Mart back then), and the mall itself was up-and-coming. I remember shopping at Woolworths and Thalhimer's and visiting Santa Land at Miller and Rhoads way back. I also remember when Bradlees, Ames and Roses were competitors to Kmart and Wal-Mart was hardly seen in my area. Then too, there were the abandoned Nicholl's stores that I cannot find any info on. Now, many of the places I fondly remember are flea markets, local shops, or have been adopted by low-tier chains such a Dollar Tree (which I remember as an up-and-coming mall store itself).
Anyway, thoughts, comments, other odd interests?
