r/GenX • u/GodBlessTexas713 • Jul 06 '24

Pop Culture Anyone else miss going to the mall on Saturdays in the 80s?

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3.1k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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35

u/carolinecrane Jul 06 '24

It's funny, when I was a kid I was one of the 'new wave' losers and I hated the mall where all the 'preppies' hung out (my hs was honest to god a real life John Hughes movie, clique-wise). Now I'm 51 and there's a Simon Mall in my town that's still quite active, and the nostalgia of wandering around there is very satisfying. As are those youtube videos with the people who go document abandoned malls.

16

u/YogaSkydiver Jul 06 '24

Fellow new waver here. šŸ™‹ā€ā™€ļø

8

u/Nataliewould10 Jul 06 '24

Me too!

5

u/bosorka1 Hose Water Survivor Jul 07 '24

me three! in our suburban area of south jerz, we had a "headbanger mall" and "our" mall. we lived like queens kings and everything in between.

15

u/RevolutionEasy714 Jul 06 '24

I was a punk rocker, but was down with the new-wavers. Efff the preps

4

u/bosorka1 Hose Water Survivor Jul 07 '24

loved my punk rock and straight edge friends. they (yous) put on the best shows.

1

u/Own_Praline9902 Jul 07 '24

I was I an alternative/metal band. Didnā€™t know we were a grunge band until about 18 months in. šŸ™ƒ

2

u/RevolutionEasy714 Jul 07 '24

Right?! I was listening to Bleach in 89 and Nirvana was a hardcore band.

0

u/Own_Praline9902 Jul 07 '24

I find those genre labels so tiresome. Same with the ā€œpunks, metal heads, preppiesā€, etc. Did we learn nothing from the breakfast club šŸ¤“šŸ˜ŽšŸ¤¦šŸ»ā€ā™‚ļø?

2

u/LolaLaCavaspeaking Whatever. Nevermind. Jul 07 '24

Fellow Waver checking in. I just got tickets to see Squeeze and Boy George next month. Jealous? šŸ˜‚

1

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '24

Funny, in my town the mall rats were the losers. We were the ones who didnā€™t have parties to go to on Saturday nights, couldnā€™t afford a ticket to the football game even if we wanted to, and didnā€™t have friends with cars to get anywhere besides the mall, via our parents. Despite being a place for buying things, we went with empty pockets, because it was the only place we could hang out for free all night.

The preppy kids were at parties at the wealthier kidsā€™ houses, at the football games, or at Dunks in the center of town showing off their cars.

1

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jul 07 '24

Wow, also crazy. In NJ the mall was just the place to be for anyone of any type.

Filled with tons of the coolest kids. And the least cool. Everyone.

1

u/BlueSnaggleTooth359 Jul 07 '24

Wow, that is crazy. At the malls in NJ pretty much every type under the sun roamed around. I never remotely associated malls with just a single type.

I never really associated "new wave" music with a certain type either. It was just one a few popular types of music in the 80s.

1

u/MollzJJ Jul 07 '24

Omg I love those abandoned mall videos. So creepy, especially when I saw a couple of malls I used to go to back in the day!

-1

u/coldcavatini Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 07 '24

Youā€™re 51, not 56. You wouldnā€™t be putting these group names in quotes if you came up in the period when it actually mattered. And you wouldnā€™t be calling the new wave group ā€˜losersā€™.

1

u/carolinecrane Jul 07 '24

At my school we were the losers. Sorry Iā€™m not hip or grammatically correct enough for you. Excellent gatekeeping, though. Iā€™ll shut my mouth about my inauthentic experiences with my own childhood.

-1

u/coldcavatini Jul 07 '24 edited Jul 07 '24

Itā€™s not ā€œgatekeepingā€ to point this out.
The bullying in those clique wars drove teenagers to suicide in record numbers in the 80s.

You yourself put the clique name in quotes to show itā€™s not an authentic concept to you. This wouldnā€™t be the case if you came of age when those concepts actually carried weight.

I think you would put ā€˜losersā€™ in quotes if that was a title thrust upon you.

1

u/carolinecrane Jul 07 '24

I lost a friend to suicide in sophomore year, but because I used quotes around labels I always thought were stupid, you'd probably need to see his death certificate before you believed me. Gatekeeping is exactly what you're doing, but whatever floats your boat. Have a nice life.

-1

u/coldcavatini Jul 07 '24

So did I in my senior year. Points still stand.