Out with the old....I don't care about anything new

A few weeks back I think I got a lesson in life. You know the one about All Good Things. Well If you didn't know already, they come to an end. When I was a little boy there was this place that my mom and I used to frequent. It was a fun place, especially during the month of December. If we weren't at my grandfather's house we'd almost certainly be there. Were is this place? It is in downtown Rochester, and its called Midtown Plaza.

I have so many memories their. Chasing my cousin James when I shouldn't have, walking around inside looking at all the stores and the things I wanted (mom could I get some candy). I even remember stopping at Wendy's to get a bag of small fries... I love Wendy's fries.

What I remember the most was sitting on Santa Claus' lap for the first time. Every year they had Santa come and visit. Just to the side of the escalators, they had a beautiful Christmas set up and had a throne for Santa to sit in. We also got to take pictures with him if our parents payed up. There was one thing I never got to do during the holiday season as a child though. I never got to ride in the monorail.



Besides the monorail there was another Staple inside the mall. Probably the most popular thing inside the mall itself. Its called the "Clock Of Nations". Its a big clock with twelve cylinders that have little dolls in them representing twelve nations.



I used to look at the clock a lot when I was a kid. Not so much so when I became a teen. I would look at it here and there. Now I'm going to miss that clock. I guess I never thought that the mall would be demolished. Boy did I get a wake up call. I woke up one morning and heard it on the news. I guess you could say my jaw dropped to the floor, at least that is what it felt like. So many memories flooded into my mind. In fact that same day, I rushed downtown to take these pictures. Why... Because it was the only ways I could grieve for the upcoming loss. The only way I could express myself.

Three of my favorite stores used to be inside of Midtown Plaza.

Jeans West was a clothing store. I used to get most of my clothes from there. In fact that Results shirt that I wrote about in a previous post was bought from there. I think that is why I can't let go of that shirt.

Then there was a store called "All Day Sunday". This store had it all. Artwork, Jewelry, clothes...they had it all. I'm not into jewelry so I used to go there because the embroidered clothes. I had one shirt done and a hat. Don't ask me what the shirt said, cause I don't remember. I do remember the hat though, because It was my favorite. It was a red hat with the name Chaz embroidered on it in black letters.

Finally there was Record Theater (the last of my favorites to leave Midtown). I went there to buy all of my music unless they didn't have. If that was the case I would cross the street and go to Record Town (also out of business), which used to be next door to McDonald's (can you say out of business...can you see a pattern here).

I even liked shopping in the Wegman's grocery store with my mom, that is when it used to be there. They closed there doors within the mall too.

Business are always closing there doors. Want to move on to something BIGGER. Bigger isn't always better. There are some people that feel uncomfortable inside those big, huge Superstores that they are building nowadays. Some of us hate giant crowds and long lines. But I guess doesn't matter anymore, because customers are nothing more than $$$. Mass Quantity over Quality isn't necessarily better. One of the first malls ever built...Such a shame.