food court

RIP, Hickory Hollow Mall

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

Another piece of Nashville history is going away. In short order, the Hickory Hollow Mall will be demolished to make away for something different (supposedly similar to 100 Oaks Mall for those who live in the area). I have so many good memories from this place from back when I was in high school.

To give a bit of context, the family used to travel up to Middle Tennessee for the summers back when I was young. We’d stay at our property in Christiana, but periodically, we’d trek into Nashville and visit this mall. Those were good days.

I remember they had possibly the best food court ever of any mall in existence. Of course, I’ve only been to 10 malls, tops, so that’s not based on much. But the food court was amazing.

I also remember I had my list of places I HAD to visit during any trip to the mall. Of course, I’d go by Waldenbooks and the music store (which I can’t remember the name of at this particular moment). I’d also make a point to drop by the Family Christian Bookstore.

I had heard that the members of DC Talk liked to hang out at this mall. Or maybe they went there once. Or possibly they shot a music video there at one point. Whatever. I kept thinking I was going to run into them randomly and have my brief moment of fame.

For those of you old enough to remember malls in the 80s, there was a whole mall vibe. You could literally spend the whole day without batting an eye. I even fantasized about getting locked in the mall overnight and having free access to roam around (that was before I saw the movie Dawn of the Dead where flesh-eating zombies invade a mall).

I know this mall has been basically dead for a while now. The last time I was there it was like a ghost town (if ghost towns were all indoors and had stores instead of buildings). It was sad. But knowing that it won’t physically be there hurts my heart a little and makes me a little sad.

RIP to the Hickory Hollow Mall. You were good while you lasted. Thanks for all the memories.

More Summertime Nostalgia

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I went to a job fair today in the Nashville Public Library branch in Antioch. As it turns out, this library is located right next to the old Hickory Hollow Mall, now known as the Global Mall at the Crossings.

Back in the day, I used to spend summers in Middle Tennessee with the fam and at least once or twice during every summer, my Mom, my sister, and I would make the pilgrimage to this mall.

I took some time after I was done checking out the very underwhelming job fair to walk around the mall.

It was sad. There are so few stores open that it’s almost like a ghost mall. Still, as I walked, it was like the smell of the mall brought back so many memories for me. I don’t know if this certifies me as mental, but for me there is a special mall odor.

I remember I always had to check out Zondervan Christian Bookstore. I had to investigate the latest musical releases at the record stores. And the mecca of any good mall is always the food court, and I did spend some quality time there.

I remember hoping I would see the members of the Christian group dc Talk waking around the mall, like all they did when they weren’t recording or performing was hang out together in malls.

I remember losing track of time more than once and dear old mom having to hunt me down because I got sidetracked by a book or a CD or possibly the pet stores they used to have at malls.

I used to think how neat it would be to be locked in a mall overnight. In my version of reality, all the stores would be open (especially the toy stores, book stores, and music stores) and I could go from store to store until I finally crashed in one of those stores that sold mattresses.

Then I saw the movie where zombies overran the mall and I got over that fantasy. But I still look back with fondness over this particular mall.

Ah, those were good days.

Revisiting My Own Past

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Recently, I discovered an old favorite band of mine that I hadn’t thought about in a while. You’ve most likely never heard of the band, since they were a late 70’s jazz fusion band. You most likely have heard of their drummer, an English chap who goes by the name of Phil Collins.

Anyway, back in the day I owned a cassette compilation of some of their most well-known compositions. I’m fairly certain I picked it up in the discount section at either The Sound Shop or Camelot Music in the Hickory Ridge Mall, probably just before heading to the food court for some pizza from Sbarro’s.

A few weeks back at McKay’s Used Books (and everything else you can think of), I had enough trade credit for four of their CDs among some of my other noteworthy finds.

It’s interesting how much more I appreciate their ridiculous musicianship than I did way back when. Of course, back then I really dug groups like Wham! and Club Nouveau. Don’t hold that against me. My musical tastes have definitely matured a lot since those days.

Also, I’ve been reminiscing about a great series of books I used to read as a wee younger lad. I believe they were called Choose Your Own Adventure. In them, you would read for a few pages before being presented with a list of choices, a la if you enter the dark and scary hallway, turn to page 94, but if you elect to stay in the kitchen and make yourself a PB&J, turn to page 108. I loved those books.

So my next quest is to find at least one of those books. I’m checking out the usual places– the library castoff section, Goodwill, McKay’s, and amazon.com, but so far no luck.

So far, I’m batting .500, which for me is a win.