A friend from high school, Claudia Noble-Stooksberry, posted in a W.T. White Facebook group. With the Valley View Mall shortly becoming a memory itself, she asked for memories of the mall. It was finished in 1973, before our senior year. As you look at the picture of the McDonalds, ponder this: McDonalds and the Target to the right behind it were the only businesses there. Most of the buildings you see in the picture were not there. The McDonalds was half the size it is now. Across the street from both was a lot of dirt that led to a dirt cliff. On the hill, at the top of the cliff, was Sears. When they put Christmas lights up, you could see them for miles around.
I had jobs since I was six, selling things door to door, delivering newspapers, and so on. But my first “real” job, was at that McDonalds. I had 
long hair then, much like I do now, but it was a little more red then. I had to wear a wig at work. It was the closest I could come to red – cheaply – but it looked on the purple side to me.
One evening some cute girls were sitting on the patio. It no longer has a patio. I felt subconscious in the wig and I knew it made me look a little strange. But with long hair, I was used to people thinking I was strange. Now I just accept the fact that I am, after all, a little strange.
But I was about to punch out at the end of my shift (by punch out, I mean actually putting the card into the top of a clock and having it print the time on the card) and I thought I would impress the girls. I would walk out on the patio, take off the wig with flair, and let my hair roll back out onto my shoulders. And, hopefully, they would think that was cool. I shoved the door onto the patio to draw their attention. I reached up, jerked off the wig – and sent my glasses flying across the patio. A cool moment spoiled.
There would be more cool moments – some spoiled, some not – in the mall when it was built. But first, way back then, the Target was the first “Super Target”?…..
Peace be with you.
